How The Olympics Bullshit Ban On Tweeting About The Olympics Is Harming Olympic Athletes
from the all-about-the-profits-for-the-olympics dept
Every couple of years as the Olympics gears up again, we end up posting a series of stories about massive bullshit overclaims by the Olympics concerning trademark law. And none of it is actually about what trademark law allows. It's all about the Olympics' weird infatuation with making sure no company that doesn't give them a ton of money first can "associate" with the Olympics. Again, that's not how trademark law actually works, but few companies are willing to stand up to the International Olympic Committee or the US Olympic Committee. This year, the crackdown seems even more ridiculous than usual, with letters being sent to companies who are helping and sponsoring athletes stating that, unless they're official sponsors with the US Olympic Committee, they can't even tweet anything mentioning the Olympics. Companies that had sponsored athletes were being forced to blur out or delete social media posts about their own athletes because their racing bibs said "Olympics" on them.In our comments, Emily White, the founder of a crowdfunding for athletes site, Dreamfuel, which many Olympians use to help fund their training or the abilities of their families to come see them at the Olympics, shared her story as well. That included being told that a company built specifically to help fund athletes can't congratulate their own athletes:
We're thrilled to be able to provide a new and viable revenue stream to all athletes, whether they are Olympic sports or not.I've been speaking with Emily about all of this and apparently after pressure from the Olympics about their special campaigns to get funding for families to come to the Olympics, they were told to never mention the Olympics or "Olympians" at all. They can only say "athletes" who are going to "Brazil" (they were told they can't even say "Rio").
We have been contacted by the USOC about all of the above (our team was stunned that we cannot publicly congratulate Dreamfuel athletes who qualify for The Olympics). I want to add that we've also been told that we also cannot post the press we've been receiving on the funding we've been generating for Olympic athletes (we don't have a publicist; all press on our mission is organic by nature) because it uses the O word.
Last Wednesday, the rules got even stricter as "Rule 40" went into effect. This ratchets things up to ridiculous levels and basically says that if a company so much as tweets a congratulations to an Olympic athlete, that could cost the athlete their medals. Really. And, yes, that's totally fucked up. Ridiculously, the Olympics claim that they put in place Rule 40 to prevent commercialization of the games, that are perhaps the most commercialized sporting event ever -- it's just that all the money goes to the Olympics themselves, and not to the athletes.
At least one company went so far as to build an entire marketing campaign around attacking Rule 40:
During the U.S. Olympic track & field trials earlier this month, a flatbed billboard truck traveled around the University of Oregon campus, bearing slogans such as, “Not pictured here: an athlete living below the poverty line to bring glory to their country.” It was part of a campaign, called “Rule 40” in reference to the section of the Olympic charter which it disputes, that went live in early June and has mainly consisted of social media posts and covertly-distributed T-shirts and stickers.There's even a Rule40.com website protesting the ridiculousness of these rules, and it's getting lots of folks talking about how ridiculous these rules are.
The campaign takes issue with an International Olympic Committee rule preventing any participant in the Olympics—athletes, coaches, trainers and officials—from capitalizing on their own image for advertising purposes from nine days before the opening ceremony until three days after.
Great read on #Rule40 by @runnersworld on the impact it has for athletes, brands and fans: https://t.co/Hhvmsn8JOL pic.twitter.com/fQ8qK0a0sp
— Jonathan Levitt (@JWLevitt) July 28, 2016
#Rule40 & IOC forbids posting the press we've been receiving on our mission. Follow @EmWizzle for media stories on our athletes thru August.
— Dreamfuel (@DreamfuelMe) July 28, 2016
#Rule40 bans #discus champ Whitney Ashley from using her image 2get her fam to Rio but I can https://t.co/N5Q0Yz0gcc pic.twitter.com/DVZX78bxpr
— Emily White (@emwizzle) July 29, 2016
I'm hoping that someone, somewhere eventually challenges the Olympics with a declaratory judgment filing or something. The trademark claims here are ludicrous and are directly being used to silence speech.
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Filed Under: athletes, crowdfunding, free speech, olympics, rio, rule 40, trademark
Companies: dreamfuel, usoc
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grant their wish?
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Re: grant their wish?
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Re: grant their wish?
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Re: grant their wish?
aDVERTISING/WORD OF MOUTH AND ALL OTHER KNOWLEDGE, means someone said something..
NO news is good news, isnt correct if you need People to goto an event..
I can see it NOW, all Airlines do NOT increase Flights to RIO..because they didnt HEAR about it..and Couldnt POST special sales and TIMES for it..because OLYMPICS is CP..
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Personally, I'm following their lead.
Anything really important will show up on youtube anyway.
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Re: Personally, I'm following their lead.
https://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20151121/07242432877/awesome-stuff-lets-bore-c ensors.shtml
Sure beats watching athletes getting exploited.
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Re: Re: Personally, I'm following their lead.
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Re: Re: Re: Personally, I'm following their lead.
What's going to be more entertaining, the sporting competition that shall not be named, or Stranger Things? Hm, tough one. Or not.
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Treaty is quite explicit, and limited.
http://www.inta.org/TrademarkBasics/FactSheets/Pages/ProtectionofOlympicTrademarks.aspx
https:/ /www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/36/220506
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Re: Treaty is quite explicit, and limited.
Not claiming to represent the Olympics? Nope.
Then you're A-Okay!
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Re: Re: Treaty is quite explicit, and limited.
You should read the links that I posted. The Olympics have a special kind of trademark, where the IOC or USOC does not have to show actual or possible confusion in order to enforce these special trademarks.
However, in an example of the dick-ishness of the USOC, the USOC went after someone who wrote a guide book about the Olympic area of Washington state. That use of "Olympic" is an exception to the trademarks that is specifically written into the treaty.
http://seattletrademarklawyer.com/blog/2007/8/13/best-of-the-olympic-peninsula-guide-runs-afoul-of-u s-olympic.html
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Re: Re: Re: Treaty is quite explicit, and limited.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Treaty is quite explicit, and limited.
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Re: Treaty is quite explicit, and limited.
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If they are going to take medals away from athletes...
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Re: If they are going to take medals away from athletes...
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Re: Re: If they are going to take medals away from athletes...
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Re: Re: Re: If they are going to take medals away from athletes...
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Re: Re: Re: Re: If they are going to take medals away from athletes...
https://www.google.com/maps/@37.1146825,140.2023351,7z
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Re: Re: Re: Re: If they are going to take medals away from athletes...
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Re: Re: Re: Re: If they are going to take medals away from athletes...
And then there's the wind. And diffusion. And the water cycle. Radioactive fallout from Chernobyl fell over much of Europe and Asia.
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Re: If they are going to take medals away from athletes...
Oh that would be gold. Or not.
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Judicial precedent
Logically speaking, the same principle says that Congress may not make trademark law so strict that it violates First Amendment rights. And trying to enforce the contrary should put the IOC and/or USOC in for really huge penalties -- say a hundred-billion-dollar class action suit?
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Problem being
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Re: Problem being
This seems to be just the thing needed to break open that can of worms.
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Phrase it right and everybody loves you:
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Re: Problem being
Until that behavior starts to hit the news and lots of people take notice. Then the court of public opinion just might turn against the IOC.
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Re: Problem being
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If I was at that level I think I would keep my mouth shut till after the event I was in. Then if I won I would toss their metal back at them and very publicly tell them where to shove it. At that point what does it matter? They can take the metal and say your disqualified, but the world will still know your the best.
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Re: #Rule40
If you search for #Rule40 on Twitter, you'll see quite a few athletes protesting.
Take Care,
Emily
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Own the althetes
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Give 'em what they want
They are dead to me, they should be thrilled if more folks would be like me.
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Re: Give 'em what they want
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Re: Re: Give 'em what they want
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Re: Re: Re: Give 'em what they want
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People are allowed to tweet all they want.
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Maybe sports fans should get together and create an alternative, non-commercial, non-IP, 'opensource' event, like a modern version of the Friendship Games.
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... Dammit, I just got a notice that I violated because they also claim the B and G words above.
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Re:
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They should do it anyway, and then dare the Olympics to go through with their threats and cause an international controversy.
I guarantee it would blow up horribly in the Olympics face, especially if the athlete was from a wealthy country that put a lot of money into the Olympics.
And that's really the only way these horrible rules will get reformed/removed.
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Re:
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And what about other sports?
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Thanks again,
Emily
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Re:
For me the Olympics has lost any appeal it had a long time ago. And seeing how bad it is live (it's happening right here now) I have even less sympathy for them.
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Re:
It never ceases to amaze me just how many politicians round the planet are not just aware of him, but are kind of awe-struck by him...
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a congratulations to an Olympic athlete, that could cost the athlete their medals.
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Warning: do not read the conditions to be an olympian..
Go watch of read it, you will find it on the net..
UNTIL RECENT..
You could NOT be a professional ANYTHING, to be an Olympian..
You could not Gain any monies from a corp..
In the USA, the Gov. Never backed an olympian..
The rules to be in the olympics are STRANGE and STUPID..
And JUST because:
WHO can Justify the CR of a word created over 1000 years ago??
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I was out after Jim Thorpe
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What?
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Re: What?
Considering how FIFA got hit with corruption scandals after they came to Brazil (seriously, it was a feast) I'm hoping the same happens to the IOC and the USOC and a bunch of these morons go to jail.
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In other words, the medals are not awarded to the best athletes anyway.. So who gives a crap who gets them anymore?
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I wouldn't "sponsor" them if they were on fire.
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New slogan
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Required reading
Olympic executives cash in on a ‘Movement’ that keeps athletes poor
My own take:
I've commented here before about the USOC and IOC because I had some involvement with them in my own (minor) sport. They are ALL about self-aggrandizement and luxury and profit, and couldn't care less about the damage done to host countries/cities or the health of athletes. They've managed to leverage athletes' natural desire to excel and to compete at the highest levels possible into the machinery of their own self-perpetuation.
I got out. I tried changing the system from within for years, achieved almost nothing (not surprising), wrecked my physical and mental health, made a few powerful enemies, and finally bailed rather than self-destruct. Others have done the same; others have persisted, and I salute them, because I know first-hand exactly what they're going through. I've now become convinced that the best available option for everyone on this planet except the IOC, the USOC (and its equivalents in other countries) is to shut down the Olympics permanently.
Which I say sadly, as it could be beautiful and wonderful and every positive thing...but it isn't. And it won't be. It has been corrupted by power and greed into a twisted, sick parody of itself. It can't be fixed. It's beyond repair. It's time to shut it down.
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Just ignore it
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Olympics?
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Re: Olympics?
Nothing less than a tragedy.
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