Vancouver Olympics Using Copyright Law (Rather Than Scalping Laws) To Ban Ticket Reselling
from the misuse-of-copyright dept
Michael_S points us to the news that the Vancouver Olympics -- no stranger to massive abuse of intellectual property law -- is now using copyright law to prevent ticket resales. Now, lots of places around the world have anti-scalping laws that forbid reselling of event tickets (or reselling them above a certain price). Vancouver, however, does not have any such law. No problem for the Olympics folks... they're using the special copyright they were granted on a whole host of common terms, including "Vancouver 2010" to sue resellers offering the tickets. Obviously, that's got nothing to do with the purpose of copyright law, but when you grant silly monopolies, don't be surprised when they're abused.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.
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Filed Under: copyright, olympics, reselling, scalping, tickets, vancouver
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VanOC
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Re: VanOC
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Re: Re: VanOC
If it was not a problem before ... why is it now ?
In all fairness my ass
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Re: Re: Re: VanOC
And this is purely anecdotal, but I highly doubt that VanOC owns the olympic or olympic rings trademarks and copyrights. I will bet that VanOC licensed those trademarks and copyrights from the IOC and is bound by those licensing agreements to protect them - regardless of whether or not it makes sense. So while all this scorn is being heaped on VanOC, I would bet that the IOC probably has some blame to take here. Again, this is my opinion only, but it does make sense.
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Another thing VanOC wants to hush-hush
Anyway, come to Vancouver and Whistler in 2010 to enjoy that event and be sure to keep your head down, because who can say if the bullets won't still be flying around town next February.
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Use/Abuse of Copyright Law
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Re: Use/Abuse of Copyright Law
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I haven't watched the Olympics the last couple of rounds because they seem to have become a contest to see who is best at using steroids without getting caught.
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Olympic Rings
No sig. (I don't want any Olympic hit men after me!)
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Scalping laws are nuts...
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Scalping isn't the issue
Not a good precedent.
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Scalping is Bad?
It would seem that scalping means that the tickets were sold too cheaply or were not made available in a manner that allowed the general public access to the exchange. If a scalper is willing to line up at three in the morning to get the much in demand tickets why should that person not make a profit? I would rather pay extra and get my sleep and not miss work.
I think ChrisB's idea of an auction system is a good one. The price is what people think the ticket is worth, not what a scalper or a ticket selling monopoly set it to be.
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Re: Scalping is Bad?
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Grizzly Adams DID Have A Beard!
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Had Enough
They are now being boycotted by me.
Pity, always enjoyed watching them.
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Scalping laws are a joke
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http://www.chtv.com/ch/chcanews/story.html?id=1369278
Of course there's no lawsuit filed in Vancouver, because it's NOT illegal here. This just protects corporate behemoths like ticketbastard who can get away with tacking on ridiculous "convenience" charges that are illegal in most other provinces, countries etc.
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Just another reason not watch the Olympics next year
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