The IOC Joins the DMCA Censorship Club

from the ready?-set?-censored! dept

Thu, Aug 14th 2008 3:45am — Kevin Donovan

The International Olympic Committee is no stranger to overzealous protection of what they perceive to be their intellectual property. We've covered their ridiculous attempts to change British law to "protect" the terms "Olympics" and "2012" (the year London hosts the summer games). It seems the folks at the IOC want to control all aspects of their sporting event, even how people discuss it. Knowing this, and the ways in which the DMCA has been abused time and time again, it was hardly surprising when the IOC sent a take-down notice to YouTube for a video posted by Students for a Free Tibet.

The video, which showed a pro-Tibet candle-light vigil in New York City and images from the March protests in Tibet, was dutifully pulled by YouTube. However, it was unclear what infringement the IOC was claiming. Although their famous interlocking rings were briefly shown, that would seem to be a trademark, not covered by the DMCA. Even if they claimed the rings were copyrighted creative content, their creation in 1913 places them firmly in the public domain (on copyright, the trademark remains -- but the DMCA isn't for trademark). Luckily after a number of sites questioned the action, the IOC withdrew their complaint. This remains troubling, though. The DMCA was not meant to silence legitimate speech, but the number of times litigants have suppressed content they don't like is staggering. This case benefits from external media attention due to existing hot-button political issues, but not all censored YouTube videos are so lucky and, undoubtedly, bogus DMCA requests have censored videos which result not in blogosphere outrage, but silenced expression.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: copyright, dmca, ioc, olympics, takedowns

17 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 14 Aug 2008 @ 5:07am

Yeah everyone knows the DMCA sucks . . . ?
That the DMCA is a giant smelley turd mostly used to stiffle creativity and innovation is not news? Its like Marijuana laws, everyone pretty much agrees they are useless and rediculous (even alot of the politicians involved with creating them), but good luck finding anyone willing to do anything about them. If you could actually find an article about ANY politician that was actually interested in fixing the rediculous DMCA mess . . . now that would be news.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Yeah another AC whatever, 14 Aug 2008 @ 5:22am

The IOC...
is as much of a joke as the DMCA.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 14 Aug 2008 @ 5:42am

When building weapons
Remember the innocent will *always* be victim to them. There is not one weapon designed by man that has not been abused to harm an innocent.

The DMCA is merely a weapon to be stockpiled. And it will be abused because of its effectiveness. If only the Congress Critters were required to have a History major or something....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Killer_Tofu (profile), 14 Aug 2008 @ 6:08am

Re : Kevin Donovan
I believe that I can feel how much you dislike people trying to stomp on our first amendment in your writing.
I like it.
Thank you Kevin.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
some old guy, 14 Aug 2008 @ 6:19am

Re: When building weapons
Was it TNT that won a nobel PEACE prize?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 14 Aug 2008 @ 6:23am

Re: Re: When building weapons
"Was it TNT that won a nobel PEACE prize?"

hehe I think it was NOBEL who created both TNT and PEACE prize . . . this dicotamy has always lead me to hope that one day the Bush Administration might actually do something to benefit the United States . . .
[ link to this | view in thread ]
some old guy, 14 Aug 2008 @ 6:30am

Re: Re: Re: When building weapons
hehe, ok, I looked it up, Nobel invented Dynamite (which is nitroglycerin soaked into a drying absorbent).

TNT is different than dynamite, it is not nitroglycerin at all, and was invented by someone else.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Overcast, 14 Aug 2008 @ 6:45am

"It seems the folks at the IOC want to control all aspects of their sporting event, even how people discuss it."

That's fine - in the spirit of where the games are being held, I won't talk about it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 14 Aug 2008 @ 8:32am

Re: Re: Re: Re: When building weapons
"TNT is different than dynamite, it is not nitroglycerin at all, and was invented by someone else."

I beg to differ, to quote that great Aussie thinker Bon Scott; 'Im TNT . . . Im dynamite' clearly he is making a correlation here and in fact suggesting that both TNT and Dynamite are in fact the same thing. Ohh and that they both apparently . . . rock.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Casey (profile), 14 Aug 2008 @ 8:41am

Vancouver 2010
They did the exact same thing here in Vancouver leading up to the 2010 Olympics. There was a local pizza place that used the Olympic rings as part of their logo and have done so for the last 25 years. The IOC (or VANOC, not sure which) basically forced the guy to shut down shop or risk having the Olympic lawyers set upon him. And I know the same thing exists for using 2010 or Olympics as any part of a business name. It's become quite draconian in what can or cannot happen in light of our 2010 Olympics.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 14 Aug 2008 @ 9:30am

Nobel established the Peace Prize after realizing how horrible his creation could be in the wrong (proper?) hands.

Sort of his way of making amends.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
CanonicalKoy, 14 Aug 2008 @ 9:33am

It seems as if NBC has been causing Olympic video on YouTube to be yanked pretty quickly. Hmmmm...I don't have (gasp!) cable service where I live, I can't get NBC on my antenna and their lovely website, since it's tied ever-so-tightly mucked up with MSN, has video that (shockingly!) won't play on my Linux box.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Accountant, 14 Aug 2008 @ 10:03am

IOC and name Olympic
There is a pizza parlor on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington called of all things, Olympic Pizza. The US Olympic committee sued it over its name, even though it was referring to the Olympic Mountains, not the Olympics. They even had mountains in their logo. I have little care or respect for anything to do with the Olympics, which has become too commercialized and self serving by far, just like all professional sports (and these athletes are professionals in almost every way). I get real tired of their snooty, holier than though ways.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John Duncan Yoyo, 14 Aug 2008 @ 6:02pm

So is the year 2012 now going to be renamed?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 18 Aug 2008 @ 7:46am

Olympics = greed
I haven't watched the Olympics since the one in Australia eight years ago and haven't missed it.

It's all about greed and money...the true god of the West. The Olympics may claim to be a "amateur" sporting event to spread "goodwill," but it's just all about the money. Now it's just a bunch of sponsorships, absurd IP ideals, steroids (remember Marion Jones?), corruption (remember Salt Lake City?) and cities spending billions upon billions of dollars (remember Athens?).

This is worse than when the NFL goes nuts over its Big Game...at least the NFL admits they're all about the money.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
no to oly's, 20 Nov 2009 @ 11:15am

Re: Vancouver 2010
you are correct both the IOC and Vancouver Organizing commitee (VANOC)are bullies. However try as they might so far, 3 months away from the opening of the games this small Pizza place still does a booming business and still has it's 20 year old neon signs proudly inviting customers through it's doors. I am not sure of what the official status of the battle is but it appears the little guy might be winning this one. by the way drop by and support them they make awesome Pizza.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ivision4u, 17 Feb 2010 @ 11:49am

Video Cencorship
As a Canadian I believe we need to be vigilant to the censorship of the IOC and other governing bodies. Our children should learn to recognize these infringements and we as parents sometimes need to show them that this is wrong. ‘O Canada we stand on guard for thee‘. There is a reason why we as Canadians take this oath as we award our athletes for their excellence and their service to themselves and their country. Today one of my daughters YouTube videos was censored by the IOC. I invite you to check out this over-the-top censorship at http://blog.virtualwhistler.com/?p=322
[ link to this | view in thread ]