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Olympics Committee Says Non-Sponsors Are Banned From Tweeting About the Olympics (gizmodo.com) 247

Posted by msmash from the my-house-my-rules dept.
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.
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Olympics Committee Says Non-Sponsors Are Banned From Tweeting About the Olympics More

Olympics Committee Says Non-Sponsors Are Banned From Tweeting About the Olympics

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  • Rhetorical... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dj.delorie ( 3368 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @12:22PM (#52591099) Homepage

    So what would happen if they held the olympics, and nobody showed up?

    • Re:Rhetorical... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @12:36PM (#52591295)

      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, Insightful)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @12:52PM (#52591527)

      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.

      • 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)

        by budgenator ( 254554 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @02:49PM (#52593199) Journal

        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.

    • 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.

      • 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.

    • Goodness knows this one stunk before it ever started.
  • #CensorshipTwats #Rio2016 #TeamUSA #Olympics

  • Oh dear lord... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @12:25PM (#52591141)

    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)

    by yodleboy ( 982200 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @12:28PM (#52591163)
    if only all media companies would just say "screw it" and not post anything about the Olympics. No athlete info, no sob stories, no results, nothing, nada, zip, anywhere. I'd love to see USOC's collective heads implode. Sorry guys, but I don't care enough about the games to be funneled through your approved channels. Likely the drama in Rio won't be the games, but the sad state of the host city/country anyway. Good luck squashing THOSE stories...
    • But everyone loves the athlete sob stories. "Frank was born with no arms or legs, but somehow overcame that to become the greatest triathelete in history. And his dog died too."

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sconeu ( 64226 )

        Don't forget Jenny, who overcame a life threatening hangail to compete in $SPORT, and she was an underdog because of it!!!

    • 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.

      • 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.

    • "The Olympics"? What is the Olympics? Does it have something to do with mountaineering?

    • 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

    • I would too. Just show the sporting event and not do any back stories trying to get users into the personal lives of the athletes; turning a sporting event into "The Real World."

    • 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...

    • 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.

    • Not going to happen, despite these costs and strictures, media companies still stand to make money so they will play ball. And the US committee is just following the Olympic committee, who have demanded (and gotten) similar injuctions against nasty free-loading IP pirates in previous editions of the Games. SA gave them special IP police. And some details were published from the Bid Book instructions given to the Dutch commission when they were preparing their bid. It had plenty of provisions to very str
  • This is what you get when you decide to sell public space to the highest bidder. If I were paying billions of dollars for the right to advertise, I would want to own it too. Maybe this is an indication that we should stop selling our public spaces and events to such and extent.
  • You Deserve an Olympic Record Today!
    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)

    by myowntrueself ( 607117 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @12:31PM (#52591225)

    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??

  • I wonder if they're more concerned about people tweeting out results or complaints.

    I also wonder which they'll have more of.

  • She wants her 'effect' back.

    • Umm... they want publicity about the games.

      • 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.

  • #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)

      by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      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)

    by Yvan256 ( 722131 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @12:37PM (#52591307) Homepage Journal

    So do they think they are the law in the U.S.A. only or all over the world?

    • The law? That's for mere peons. The IOC believes they are aristocracy, and that if they took a collective shit in the Olympic rowing venue it would cleanse the water and make it smell like roses, because like Caroline, they "like to think their shit don't stink [youtube.com]".

    • 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.

  • The Olympics are all about money (Score:5, Interesting)

    by QuietLagoon ( 813062 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @12:37PM (#52591309)
    This affirms it. The sports aspect of the Olympics is secondary, even tertiary. The primary reason for the existence of the Olympics nowadays is to enrich those who organise it and those who use the media content for their profit.

    • 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)

        by NotAPK ( 4529127 )

        "just end it. boycott it, interfere with them, cause them annoyance."

        I think the best thing is for everyone to just ignore it.

    • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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)

      by Zak3056 ( 69287 )

      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).

    • 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)

        by Dog-Cow ( 21281 )

        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.

  • What a cherry on the overall sucktitude of US Olympic coverage. Instead of the actual events, we're forced to watch hour after hour of human interest stories and other "puff pieces" which are written to pluck our heartstrings -- all "Sponsored by VISA" or some other shill -- while the events are time-shifted to crazy hours. We need to stay off the Internet so we don't spoil what happened for ourselves. And when we do get the actual events, it's only the US athletes. Fuck that. I mean, that's great and

    • 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.

    • Comcast/NBC is streaming pretty much every event live. No additional cost, if you subscribe to cable/satellite/Telco TV.

    • Re:Fuck off and die already (Score:4, Insightful)

      by sconeu ( 64226 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @01:58PM (#52592459) Homepage Journal

      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)

    by VAXcat ( 674775 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @12:39PM (#52591345)
    My good taste and good judgement bans me from tweeting about anything, ever.

  • Sponsors are not allowed to congratulate athletes (Score:5, Interesting)

    by UnknowingFool ( 672806 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @12:42PM (#52591379)

    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.

  • 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].

    • Reminds me of the time the IOC sued "The Gay Olympics" and made them change their name to "The Gay Games". Apparently it IS possible to own the rights to a word that has been in common use for thousands of years. And apparently you can pick and choose what organizations can use that word (e.g. how much does the Special Olympics pay for the use of the trademark?)
  • Is this an intentional Streisand Effect? Are they just trying to get their name out more by claiming they don't want you to talk about them?

  • Die, please. (Score:3)

    by RevRagnarok ( 583910 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @01:06PM (#52591721) Homepage Journal
    I really hope this year is the year that this farce dies. Between Zika and Russia, there's a chance. Such a waste of time and money.

  • 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.

  • Other than Trademark law, how exactly is this ban enforceable? 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.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • 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)

    by edbob ( 960004 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @01:13PM (#52591835)
    Why are the Summer Olympics being held in Brazil IN WINTER?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cpotoso ( 606303 )
      Have you been to Rio in winter?

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      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

  • Please re-tweet this. [twitter.com] It asserts your constitutional right to free speech.

  • 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)

    by blackomegax ( 807080 ) on Wednesday July 27, 2016 @01:24PM (#52591969) Journal
    This is the future of how all companies will behave under the TPP.
  • You violate a trademark if you mis-represent a good or service as that of the trademark holder. And it has to be in the same trademark category that they registered. Having a trademark does not grant ownership of a word, and does not prevent anyone else from using that word. Use of a trademark in reporting and normal discussion is not a violation.
  • Any company tweeting about Olympics will be ... banned ... sued ... slapped on buttocks ... deleted from any social media (whatever this means)!
    We have full powers now !

  • 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

  • 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?

  • I am sending my reporter Joe Olym to Brazil and he will be sending us photos. #OlymPics
  • This story from arstechnica Any use of this article without the NFL’s express written consent is prohibited [arstechnica.com] is a good read, including

    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

  • I have like one post from 4 or 5 years ago. Now I'm going to start tweeting about the olympics. Because fuck you.

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