Olympics Committee Says Non-Sponsors Are Banned From Tweeting About the Olympics (gizmodo.com) 247
An anonymous reader shares a Gizmodo report:The U.S. Olympics Committee has gone off the deep end, when it comes to intellectual property. It's willing to sue anyone to protect their trademarks, even when the use is no real threat. But the committee's latest claim is an entirely new level of absurdity. What's getting the U.S. Olympics Committee in a tizzy this time? Tweets. Specifically any company that tweets about the Olympic Games and isn't a sponsor. ESPN obtained a letter from the U.S. Olympic Committee chief marketing officer Lisa Baird who outlines the absurd demands. "Commercial entities may not post about the Trials or Games on their corporate social media accounts," Baird writes, apparently in earnest. "This restriction includes the use of USOC's trademarks in hashtags such as #Rio2016 or #TeamUSA. And according to ESPN, it gets even more absurd. Apparently the letter says that any company whose primary mission isn't media is forbidden from using any pictures taken at the Olympics, sharing, and even reposting anything from the official Olympics account.
Rhetorical... (Score:5, Interesting)
So what would happen if they held the olympics, and nobody showed up?
Re:Rhetorical... (Score:5, Insightful)
So what would happen if they held the olympics, and nobody showed up?
They don't care as long as the IOC gets their bribes.
Re: Rhetorical... (Score:5, Funny)
I trademarked my full name, so that no one can talk about me one twitter. I'm fairly certain that's how it works.
Re:Rhetorical... (Score:5, Insightful)
I expect we have enough people willing to watch just to see if it is a train wreck to make it worth it to the sponsor.
Rio seems to be a disaster. I expect people will just want to see how bad it will be.
Re: (Score:2)
I expect people will just want to see how bad it will be.
This might be the only thing that saves it. Can the New Zealand sailing team recover the lead after striking a floating corpse in the harbor? Did the exploding water heater ruin the chances for Olympic Gold for the plucky runner from Zimbabwe? And can Mauritania raise enough cash in time to pay the ransom for their volleyball team? It's like reality TV but better! "Survivor Rio Edition"!!
Re:Rhetorical... (Score:5, Interesting)
I was at Atlanta in 1996, (Dept of Defense, Joint Task Force-Olympics (JTF-0)) big difference between what the public sees, the MSM decides to show the public and what happens behind the scenes. Knowing how well Atlanta went, and what a train-wreck it was behind the scenes, I can't imagine what kind of horror storey Rio is going to be.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd agree with you, but I would be there was another letter that went to the news media about how they are required to play down any problems. Sure, make some minor mention of the stuff that everyone already knows - the polluted water, etc. But don't talk about things like the water heaters not working in the dormitory at Olympic village or about the power going out, etc. (things that haven't happened yet, but will). The media probably already agreed not to cover those things much at all.
There have already been several stories about plumbing and electrical not working in the village, as well as numerous other issues such as leaks. In fact the Australian team very publicly refused to move into their assigned apartments and are staying at a hotel until the games officially start because their rooms are in such poor condition.
Re: (Score:2)
So what would happen if they held the olympics, and nobody showed up?
I would try going the opposite way: have everybody tweet something about the Olympics. Let the IOC go bananas trying to identify and sue a billion or more people all over the world who use a medium that is largely anonymous.
Re: (Score:2)
I would try going the opposite way: have everybody tweet something about the Olympics. Let the IOC go bananas trying to identify and sue a billion or more people all over the world who use a medium that is largely anonymous.
FTS:
Specifically any company that tweets about the Olympic Games and isn't a sponsor.
So you as an individual aren't barred from tweeting about the Olympics, but if you tweet on behalf of "Applehu Akbar's Cereal [youtube.com]", then they'll go after you.
I think we might find out (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I was going to say "insects"
Re:Rhetorical... (Score:4)
But no. It's unfair to developing nations to have all the prestige remain in the hands of colonial / first-world nations / pick your SJW bullsh!t.
So we need to "fairly" allocate the games around the world.
Re:Rhetorical... (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Hey hey hey... it's "The Big Game" not "Super Bowl." Or the NFL will come after you the exact same way.
My favorite was Superb Owl.
Re: (Score:3)
Actually, there was a lot of talk in Athens after 2004 that the Olympic games should be moved there permanently: the venues and necessary infrastructure had been built, the games were largely successful from a logistical viewpoint, and Greece knows how to handle mobs of tourists. And, of course, history and all that.
Personally, having been at the 2004 Games, I'm kind of glad it didn't work out. But it's shameful to see how the Olympic venues are largely just sitting idle and decaying. Currently at least
Re:Rhetorical... (Score:4, Insightful)
That's why the games should only be held in LARGE cities with all the infrastructure already built. LA made money on the summer Olympics, one of the few summer Olympics to make money because they already had all but one or two facilities.
Re: (Score:3)
Meadowlands,
Yankee Stadium
Citi Field (Mets)
There are at least four smaller stadiums - Red Bull Arena (soccer) and minor league baseball (brooklyn, staten island, long island)
There is the Arthur Ashe stadium (US Open Tennis), and tons of other, smaller venues not including horse racing tracks Belmont, Aqueduct and others.
For indoors there are
MSG, the Barclay Center, Nassau Coliseum, Prudential Stadium and a whole slew of smaller ones
Re: (Score:3)
I guess New York's stadiums are all just sitting idle hoping for the Olympics to come to town, right? The multi-billion dollar sports teams won't mind vacating their homes for a few weeks, right? Also it would be so nice and neighborly of New York to offer the Olympic games their largest "New York" stadium, Meadowlands, located in East Rutherford, NJ; and Prudential Stadium in Newark, NJ; and Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ. I'm glad some crowded subways wouldn't bother you.
Re: (Score:2)
It's a nationalist circle jerk - the exact opposite of how they pitch it.
Re:Rhetorical... (Score:5, Funny)
You forgot money, doping, bribery and corruption.
He said "politics" which I'm pretty sure covers money doping bribery and corruption.
Re: (Score:3)
I don't think "doping" was covered by "politics", as AFAIK politicians don't use performance enhancing drugs.
Re: (Score:2)
politicians don't use performance enhancing drugs.
You may have me on a technicality. Perhaps we could make PED's mandatory for politicians? If nothing else steroid use would make them less likely to reproduce.
Re:Rhetorical... (Score:4, Interesting)
Bullshit they use Inderal, Adderal and Provigil quite regularly just like professional poker players. The Adderal and Privigil keeps them wake and alert, the Inderal suppresses micro expressions that give away their lies and bluffs.
How can this possibly go wrong? (Score:2)
Another example of top management ignorance (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
It wouldn't even necessarily be legal to try.
Oh dear lord... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes. This. OMG please please PLEASE do this more USOC! Cut your own tail off and eat it until there is nothing left! Please try and force non-sponsor businesses to avoid using your marks, your copyrights, heck, tell they can;t even mention that the Olympics are even happening so that we can all fucking forget about you, watch you finally die, and then maybe, MAYBE, see something better that is actually about the athletes and not lining the pockets of greedy scum.
#tiredofyourshit #stopscrewingathletes #GFYUSOC
oh if only... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Don't forget Jenny, who overcame a life threatening hangail to compete in $SPORT, and she was an underdog because of it!!!
Re: (Score:2)
"Put it to country music and you've got a hit on your (artificial) hands."
'Frank was born with no arms or legs and is coming home from prison on the midnight train.'
Re: (Score:3)
I'm not even sure how long it's been since I gave a flying crap about the olympics. But yeah, they're at least as big a collection of overtly corrupt scum as FIFA, and possibly even worse. Everyone associated in any way with both orgs could be sucked in their entirety into a gigantic sinkhole, never to be seen again, and nothing of value would be lost.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not even sure how long it's been since I gave a flying crap about the olympics.
I would guess when they moved one of them out of phase with the other, so now you have one every other year. When they only happened every four years, it was more of a "big deal" because you didn't have one for so long.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It'd be even better if they started covering the amount of economic and environmental damage every Olympic games causes to its host. The hosts think they're going to get a $500 billion tourism industry overnight, and expend tens of billions of dollars (a drop in the bucket for the U.S. Federal government; kind of hefty for a U.S. state; crippling for a city, U.S. or otherwise) ripping out forests, tearing down housing, excising shopping centers, and doing whatever else they need to do to place and supply
Re: (Score:2)
Wishful thinking (Score:2)
if only all media companies would just say "screw it" and not post anything about the Olympics.
If they can't resist talking about Donald Trump and his douchebaggery they sure as heck won't resist talking about the Olympics and their corrupt douchebaggery. Even when they should...
Re: (Score:2)
I just realized that this means a simple way of reducing the amount of Biannual Major International Sporting Event news in my feed is to replace the local NBC station in my news feed (for local news), with another local station.
Re: (Score:3)
This is what you get (Score:2)
Have a Coke and a Long Jump! (Score:2)
The Ultimate Swimming Machine!
A Diamond Isn't as Good as a Gold Medal!
America Runs the 4x100 Relay on Dunkin'!
Due to rights restrictions... (Score:5, Interesting)
During one Olympics, the BBC world service news on the hour was replaced with the announcement:
"Due to rights restrictions we are unable to bring you this program".
I stopped listening to the BBC world service and stopped expressing any interest in the Olympics.
Whats the point in having a world news that you can't broadcast due to rights restrictions??
Turning the Olympics into a 5-ring circus (Score:2)
I wonder if they're more concerned about people tweeting out results or complaints.
I also wonder which they'll have more of.
Dear IOC, Barbara Streisand called (Score:2)
She wants her 'effect' back.
Re: (Score:2)
Umm... they want publicity about the games.
Re: (Score:2)
Umm... they want publicity about the games.
They want *their* publicity about the games. They don't want anyone else with any naughty unauthorized publicity about the games. They are going to attract this in spades. People will feel encouraged to give the IOC the finger.
Teams (Score:2)
#Team[COUNTRY] isn't just for the Olympics though. Pretty much EVERY multi-national competition of any kind that has teams identify with their nation uses this generic hashtag... Is the Olympic International Comity going to start suing everyone who has ever used this term???
OH WAIT, THAT'S RIGHT! They already started suing every business around Olympia, WA and the Olympic Mountains for using "Olympic" in their name, despite the names coming from geographical location and some even being around longer than t
Re: (Score:2)
There's only one sane way for companies to respond: by continuing to post about the Ol****cs, but avoid using any of their trademarked terminology. For example, they could censor it (eg. Ol****c G***s), or even better, use hashtag #LameGames reflecting the way they are running things.
And if they sue, countersue. Try for at least a ten-figure payout.
U.S.A. only? (Score:5, Insightful)
So do they think they are the law in the U.S.A. only or all over the world?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
The USOC does that in the US. The Canadian Olympic Committee does the same thing in Canada. They were especially bad when we hosted the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Every country has their own committee and they have to enforce the brand to protect the sponsors. I don't know if they are all as heavy handed though.
Re: (Score:2)
Didn't the COC try to trademark "With Glowing Hearts"?
The Olympics are all about money (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
it should die. just end. it has its long run, it faded from what it was supposed to be about and now its a facade, at best.
just end it. boycott it, interfere with them, cause them annoyance. they need to learn they don't own concepts so wide as they claim.
but please, just end this. risking world health so more advertising can be sold? just nuke us all from orbit, if we can't seem to end this absurdity.
Re: (Score:2)
"just end it. boycott it, interfere with them, cause them annoyance."
I think the best thing is for everyone to just ignore it.
Re: (Score:2)
Where have you been? It's been about the money for a long time now. The various Olympic committees have been using heavy handed techniques to enforce the brand for years now. It was especially bad in Canada when we had the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010. Letting professionals play was all about increasing the ratings as well as adding some events that are more suited for the X Games.
Olympic Mountains banned by IOC (Score:2)
In other news the IOC has demanded the name of the Olympic Mountains in Washington State be changed, as well as the name of the capital, Olympia.
A few years back the Olympic ISP located in Silverdale, within sight of the Olympic Mountains, was forced to change its name by the IOC.
Re: (Score:2)
What's the legal basis? (Score:2)
If they're basing this on owning the copyright to the Olympics, this isn't going to work - owning a copyright on the name of a thing doesn't mean that you can prevent anyone from talking about your thing, just that nobody else can sell it. Lawsuits like this fail often - confused people think that they can use copyright to do more than control the right to copy...
Re: (Score:2)
If they're basing this on owning the copyright to the Olympics, this isn't going to work - owning a copyright on the name of a thing doesn't mean that you can prevent anyone from talking about your thing, just that nobody else can sell it. Lawsuits like this fail often - confused people think that they can use copyright to do more than control the right to copy...
They don't have to (and probably don't expect to) win, but they have the power to ruin anyone they choose to that violates their demand (they will simply sue them into the ground, regardless of merits, and their resources will significantly exceed that of their targets).
Re: (Score:2)
What about someone like Nike? I don't think they are an Olympic sponsor, but I bet their pockets are deep enough to fight this.
Trademark infringement mostly (Score:2)
If they're basing this on owning the copyright to the Olympics, this isn't going to work - owning a copyright on the name of a thing doesn't mean that you can prevent anyone from talking about your thing, just that nobody else can sell it.
It's not only a copyright but a trademark too. They Olympics and symbols relating to it are all trademarks so the primary argument would be trademark infringement though in many cases their argument would be a weak one. Often they don't have a solid legal leg to stand on but they have demonstrated in the past that they will no hesitate to sick their flesh eating lawyers on anyone who crosses them.
Basically they are trying to protect the (substantial) money they get from their "official sponsors".
Re: (Score:3)
Using a trademark when discussion the trademarked item is what trademarks are for. You can't ban anyone from using your trademark for talking about your item.
Of course, you can sue them, but that's because you can sue for any reason at all, in the US.
Fuck off and die already (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Get HideMyAss or something else, and stream from CBC :-) Live Events at crazy hours plus some recasts during "normal" North American times.
Oh yeah, and no puff pieces.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Fuck off and die already (Score:4, Insightful)
Here's a little piece I wrote back in 2000...
An Excerpt from NBC's Olympic coverage
BC: Hi! I'm Bob Costas, and welcome to NBC's incredibly wonderful coverage of the Olympics(tm). In fact, our coverage is so wonderful that we want you to enjoy the anticipation so much, that we wait till tomorrow! Now let's go to the events.
Cut to the 10000 meter run
Announcer1: Look! There's an American running in this race. He hasn't got a snowball's chance in hell of winning, but we're going to keep the camera trained on him, because we know you don't care about who wins if it's some foreigner.
Announcer2: That's right! Hey, look, the American guy just got lapped by some foreign dude. They should change the rules so that the Americans always come in first.
Cut to 20 minutes of commercials for Nike, IBM, and Coca-Cola
BC: Hi! I'm back. And weren't those commercials thrilling? Oh yes, here are the results of the 10,000 meter race. It was actually held yesterday, but we know you didn't want to know about them today. Some foreign guys won, so you don't care. But now we'll cut to a clip from four days ago at the pool, because we know you love to watch Americans accept their gold medals!
Cut to a clip of some US swimmer accepting their gold medal with the Star Spangled Banner playing in the background.
BC: Doesn't that just bring a tear to your eye? He managed to win a gold meal, even after he suffered a hangnail last year that almost ended his career. And we'll be showing you that clip every day!
Looks off camera for a minute...
What? Oh, I'm sorry. It appears that that athlete has been banned from the Games, and had her medal stripped because she said that she believes that Nike(tm) uses sweatshop labor. Darn. Now we'll have to find another heartwarming clip of an American accepting a medal. Meanwhile, it's off to the fencing competition.
Cut to yet another 20 minutes of commercials.
BC (showing bruises on his face): Sorry, I lost my head there for a minute. Management has "reminded" me that Americans don't care about fencing coverage, so we'll go to something else. Here's Rhythmic Gymnastic coverage...
Cut to the Rhythmic Gymnastic coverage...
Announcer1: Hi. We're just down to the part where some pre-teen girl runs around the floor holding a huge ball, and we pretend it's a sport. We know you love this coverage.
Announcer2: Oh! She dropped the ball! Darn it, and she was an American, too! Now we'll probably have to broadcast some pictures of a foreigner. They should change the rules!
Cut to 20 more minutes of commercials.
BC: Well, that wraps it up for our Olympic coverage for tonight. After your local news, we'll rerun this entire show, instead of showing other sports that WE know you don't want to watch.
Cut to 20 more minutes of commercials
Closing Credits. Includes the line: This is the property of NBC and the IOC. If you even talk to your friends about who won before we broadcast it, we'll sue your asses off!
Banned from tweeting (Score:5, Funny)
Sponsors are not allowed to congratulate athletes (Score:5, Interesting)
Kate Grace won the 800m Women's Final trial in a crazy finish a few weeks ago and became an Olympian for the first time. Her sponsor Oiselle posted pictures afterwards congratulating her on Instagram and their website. They were threatened by the US Olympic Committee to remove all posts and pictures of her [dailynews.com], their own athlete. Needless to say they and her boyfriend were not happy about this. But since he was not a sponsor he re-posted [facebook.com] the "offending" Instagram picture. After a while (and maybe some media backlash) they were allowed to post "compliant" pictures [oiselle.com] of her win. Effectively they had to censor out any logos relating to the US Olympic trials or Olympics.
Corrupt bastards (Score:2)
Commercial entities may not post about the Trials or Games on their corporate social media accounts
Good luck with that.
Apparently the letter says that any company whose primary mission isn't media is forbidden from using any pictures taken at the Olympics, sharing, and even reposting anything from the official Olympics account.
Reminds me of the time when the IOC decided the card game Legend of the Five Rings [wikipedia.org] somehow infringed on their trademarks.
This from the same crowd that refuses to ban Russia in the face of clear evidence of a state sponsored doping program [wikipedia.org].
Re: (Score:2)
Intended Streisand Effect (Score:2)
Die, please. (Score:3)
Starter pistols no longer loaded with blanks (Score:2)
Starer pistols will no longer be loaded with blanks, because I can tell you the results of the race; but then I have to kill you.
Is this legal? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I suspect legally companies are free to tweet anything they want as long as they don't include terms specifically trademarked by the IOC, much as advertisers referred to the Superbowl as "the big game" instead of the trademarked "Superbowl" term.
Even if they did use the trademarked terms, the use of trademarks for purely descriptive purposes is not trademark infringement, whether or not you have the trademark holder's permission. Trademarks only exist to prevent confusion, not to censor discussion.
Calling your own event "the Superbowl"—trademark infringement.
Accurately referring to the Superbowl as "the Superbowl"—not infringement.
One thing I don't understand (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Rio is located 22 degrees, 54 minutes, and 30 seconds (+- city boundaries) south of the equator.
The Tropic of Capricorn is 23 degrees, 26 minutes south of the equator.
While close (roughly 35 miles or 55 kilometers), this does technically mean that Rio is in the tropics and functionally does not have winter.
Living just under 5 degrees temperate of a tropic line myself, I can vouch that "winter" in or near the tropics is only slightly cooler than summer, and we are not likely to be buried under snow even if t
Re-Tweet This, Please! (Score:2)
any terrorist incidents will be seen on nbc only w (Score:2)
any terrorist incidents will be seen on nbc only with there editing and tape delay.
And they can block from showing any thing in rio / enforce blackouts CNN, cnn international, BBC World News America, fox news, CBC, BBC America, FOX
News Channel, FOX Business Network, ETC.
TPP (Score:5, Insightful)
This is NOT a matter of trademark violation (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Not necessarily. Take a look at the relevant portion of the Lantham Act. It would have to fit one of the provisions therein. It might make a false suggestion of affiliation, but it's arguable.
Aye sir! (Score:2)
We have full powers now !
The IOC is run by clueless, stupid lawyers (Score:2)
This is not a facetious comment - I've been involved with a few things for kids over the years and the Twitter restrictions listed in the article are minor compared to what you have to put up with trying to promote *their* event with kids.
For example, you can't have any kind of media publicity without the local IOC's permission. You cannot use the terms "Olympian" or "Olympic Athlete", instead you must use "Athlete that has/is going to compete in the Olympics". You cannot display the five rings (even if i
You've received your marching orders (Score:2)
All of you (non-commercial) people on the tweetspaces ... you now need to start using those hashtags for all sorts of unsavory things. If they're going to be that way about it, make sure the tags are useless.
Did they learn nothing from the whole "Santorum" debacle?
As Colbert would say (Score:2)
This has been challenged in US courts.. (Score:2)
Attempts to alter these copyright claims have yet to produce real change, but the sports leagues have been forced to alter some of their behavior relating to copyright. Major League Baseball, for instance, has long claimed that fantasy sports leagues must take out a license in order to use real player names and stats—despite the "fact" that facts aren't copyrigh
Finally, a reason to use my twitter account (Score:2)
I have like one post from 4 or 5 years ago. Now I'm going to start tweeting about the olympics. Because fuck you.
Re:I say (Score:5, Interesting)
Indeed. Last I checked, facts aren't copyrightable, trademarked, or otherwise protected by intellectual property rights (with the possible absurd exception of patented prime numbers), so if someone wants to report on the facts of the Olympics, such as the results or highlights, in their own words, they're entitled to do so. You can bluster and threaten as much as you want, but reporting on the facts is perfectly legal.
Re:I say (Score:5, Interesting)
This is true - but in the case of the Olympics, I'd rather that instead of reporting the facts of who's won what, they report the facts of Olympic corruption and how the Olympics does damage to the host country. And the ongoing cheating and doping.
Or show pictures of the sh#t floating in the Olympic rowing area. And the people who have been displaced. And how only the well-to-do will benefit from the new subway extension "for the Olympics." And the funding crisis for hospitals that can't treat patients because of a lack of basics such as gloves and syringes.
While we're at it, why not have a campaign to nominate #ZikaMosquitoes as the official Olympics 2016 animal?
Only a bunch of pinheads would get excited about the actual Olympics. Maybe the IOC is secretly hoping to spread Zika to create more pinheads? #OlympicZikaConspiracy :-)
Not an idle threat (Score:4, Informative)
You can bluster and threaten as much as you want, but reporting on the facts is perfectly legal.
That's true but the IOC and USOC don't care. They will sue you even if you did nothing illegal and I don't think this is an idle threat. They (mistakenly) think they are protecting their corporate sponsors by doing this. They sued Wizards of the Coast [wikipedia.org] for using a symbol that could not possibly have been mistaken for the Olympic rings.
Re: (Score:2)
Next, they will ban the carpet beater [fantasticpixcool.com].
NFL says.... (Score:2)
Obviously people talk and post pics...etc....
Re: (Score:2)
To be fair, while this latest idiocy is the USOC, the IOC is even worse about this same sort of bullshit.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)