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Not Only Does The Olympics Want Special IP Protections; It Wants To Ignore Everyone Else's

from the funny-how-that-works dept

Mon, Mar 10th 2008 3:49am — Mike Masnick

The Olympic Committee is rather infamous for its ability to convince governments to pass special intellectual property laws just to protect the Olympics. However, it appears as though the folks involved with the Olympics don't take others' IP rights so seriously. Slashdot points out that it appears the Beijing Olympics website has copied a flash game designed by someone else. So, apparently, not only does the Olympics want extra special rights concerning its own efforts, it wants to ignore the already existing copyrights of others. While I find it silly to even try to protect copyright on a simple game like this, it does say something an organization like the Olympics is so keen on over-protecting its own rights while ignoring them for others.

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Filed Under: copyright, flash games, intellectual property, olympics, websites

16 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 10 Mar 2008 @ 5:26am

looks like it's time to sue the Olympics!
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Vincent Clement, 10 Mar 2008 @ 5:34am

Re:
Or just ignore the Olympics all together.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Mar 2008 @ 5:54am

Why does everyone want a monopoly?

Can't they be man enough to compete with others, instead of trying to justify why they need patents, copyright, or whatever government granted monopoly flavor of the week?

Why do we have to live in a world full of wimps that's scared shit when we suggest monopoly are bad and that the free market is a good thing?

Why are people so damn skeptical of the free market?
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Mar 2008 @ 5:54am

Re: Re:
Don't most people already ignore them?
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Mar 2008 @ 5:56am

Re:
The answer should be obvious. Why compete if you can own a monopoly that guarantees your business will be protected and continue to generate money, regardless of how crap it is.
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VoicesInMyHead, 10 Mar 2008 @ 6:30am

Re: Re:
What are the Olympics? Sounds like Oly, renamed his My Pictures folder...
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Overcast, 10 Mar 2008 @ 6:31am

to... "protect the Olympics"

Funny, it's been going strong and just fine so far without any special "protection".

Kinda reminds me of the Godfather - I guess it's "special" protection, indeed.

Good idea actually - this year, with so many protection concerns for the IP rights, yet - holding it in China, so a complete lack and disregard for human rights... I think maybe I'll just watch the Godfather instead of the Olympics.

That way I'm sure that I'm not infringing on anyone's "rights".
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Voice of Reason, 10 Mar 2008 @ 6:44am

Re: Re: Re:
I hope to all that is holy that you aren't serious.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Mar 2008 @ 6:49am

Hardly surprising - the Chinese have been profiteering by copying IP for decades including cars, electronics, aircraft, clothing, etc. They got away with it then - they'll get away with it now.
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Shaun, 10 Mar 2008 @ 8:03am

Re:
Good point about the human rights issues in China. That is already enough of an issue to boycott the Olympics, didn't really need the copyright abuse issues as well.
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chris (profile), 10 Mar 2008 @ 8:22am

the olympics are in china??
let me get this straight, the olympics, which is famous for demanding special intellectual property rights, is holding this year's event in china, which is famous for disregarding people's intellectual property rights.

i'll bet there are bootleg DVD's of the events for sale in the streets right now, even though the events haven't happened yet. that's right, china is so desperate to steal your intellectual property that they can copy it right out of the time-space continuum.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Mar 2008 @ 8:41am

I thought China was hosting the Summer Olympics. Never knew they were also hosting the Winter Olympics-- There's pictures of short track on the website too.

Hmm.
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Monarch, 10 Mar 2008 @ 9:13am

Re: by Anonymous Coward on Mar 10th, 2008 @ 5:54am
"Why are people so damn skeptical of the free market?"

Because everyone is afraid of that one person or group that has more drive, ambition, and talent to do it better than them. Who would in turn, make money off of the product they are offering, and the greedy little biatches, don't want anyone but themselves to make a profit off of their product.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Mar 2008 @ 11:04am

Now that everyone's talking about it, suing the Olympics would be pretty ridiculous. Whoever made that game will make a fortune in exposure if he knows how to use it. But I guess Americans like to sue everyone for everything ... so it's probably to be expected *sigh*
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Cutter892, 10 Mar 2008 @ 11:07am

Sad
Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the Olympics suppose to promote the "Good will" of all nations? Yet here they are becoming another special interest group demanding special rights and privaliges. To top it all off they are holding the event in a country that could care less about the rights of people and content. The Olympics just look like another corrupt international group to me.
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Jeffry Houser (profile), 10 Mar 2008 @ 11:53am

I don't understand...
I don't understand why you think it is silly to try to protect copyrights on a simple game.

If you read through the slashdot comments and related links, this is not just a concept knock-off. Actual game assets were copied and reused.
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