Canadian Gov't Grants Olympics Ownership of Winter

An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist reports that the Canadian government has introduced new legislation that grants Vancouver Olympic organizers broad powers to police the use of any commercial use of the words associated with the Olympics. These incredibly include 'winter, Vancouver, and games.' As Geist notes, the government 'has no time to deal with spam, spyware, privacy, or net neutrality, but commits to legislation on behalf of the organizers of a sporting event?'"

Re:The Devil's Deal

[legirons]

"This is likely part of agreements made in secret host city dealings with the Olympic committees. It seems to happen in all other host cities"

Or in whole countries. Here's the UK version, from 1995:

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1995/Ukpga_1995003 2_en_2.htm#mdiv2 [opsi.gov.uk]

More recently when London decided to host an olympics, they also felt that this piece of legislation was necessary:

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2006/20060012.htm [opsi.gov.uk]

Re:Orwell was right.

[StrongAxe]

From TFA:
2) In determining whether a person has acted contrary to subsection (1), the court shall take into account any evidence that the person has used, in any language,
(a) a combination of expressions set out in Part 1 of Schedule 3; or
(b) the combination of an expression set out in Part 1 of Schedule 3 with an expression set out in Part 2 of that Schedule.
...
1. Games, 2010, Twenty-ten, 21st, Twenty-first, XXIst, 10th, Tenth, Xth, Medals
2. Winter, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Sponsor, Vancouver, Whistler

This means you can fully well say "Winter" or "Games" all you want - you just can't say "Winter Games", "2010 Games", "Games Sponsor", "Vancouver Games", etc.

This does not seem as ridiculous as, say, trademarking the word "Winter", which is the FUD implied by the original article and many posters seem to imply.

Olympics = Spend, not gain, billions

[Dogtanian]

You bring a few billion dollars of economic activity, and the government will listen to you too. A billion here, a billion there, soon you're talking real money.

I didn't buy that line before the UK government bid for the 2012 Olympics, and I'm even more sceptical now. It cost the Greek government a fortune when they hosted it, and for all the hype that Blair and chums have been giving about "regeneration" and so on, you have to bear in mind that they budgeted £2.4bn, but there are now rumours that it may go as high as £9-10bn. Is the supposed regeneration really going to be worth that much? Yeah, it might get Britain some positive attention, but I've always considered this to be overstated.

If I wanted to make a profit, there are plenty of things I'd consider before hosting the Olympics. Like.... not hosting the Olympics and keeping the money in my pocket.