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Athletes Can Blog at Olympics - with Restrictions
Posted by
Zonk
on Sat Feb 16, 2008 03:58 PM
from the can't-stop-the-signal dept.
from the can't-stop-the-signal dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "The IOC has given athletes the right to blog at the Beijing Games this summer, a first for the Olympics. They're allowed, as long as they follow the many rules it set to protect copyright agreements, confidential information and security. The IOC said blogs by athletes 'should take the form of a diary or journal' and should not contain any interviews with other competitors at the games. They also should not write about other athletes. Still pictures are allowed as long as they do not show Olympic events. Athletes must obtain the consent of their competitors if they wish to photograph them. Also, athletes cannot use their blogs for commercial gain."
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So basically... (Score:5, Interesting)
Woohoo, freedom of the press!
Re:So basically... (Score:5, Interesting)
IIRC, "Free Tibet" is not a message that will be welcomed in the Olympic Village or Olympic venues.
BTW - I get a registration link for TFA
http://news.google.com/news?q=ioc+blogging [google.com]
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China can't just come in take athletes way to poli (Score:5, Insightful)
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No but they can sure disqualify them in a heartbeat, then how does that work?
Re:China can't just come in take athletes way to p (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:China can't just come in take athletes way to p (Score:2)
htt [bbc.co.uk]
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Re:So basically... (Score:5, Interesting)
How much impact do you think Stephen Colbert would have had if he'd said, "the White House correspondent's dinner? But I hate the White House, I'm going to boycott it!" Instead, he took that as an opportunity to criticize the president, to his face, in front of all his staff and in front of the media. And there wasn't a damn thing the president could do.
Not showing up to the Olympics is pointless. You're throwing away years of hard work, and for what? China isn't going to suddenly stop supporting Sudan and Burma, or stop oppressing Tibetans just because a few athletes don't show. Or, you could show up, win a medal, get a moment in the spotlight, and use it to shed light on China's abuses, in China, with the entire world watching (of course, it might be a good time to bring attention to some U.S. human rights abuses as well).
I could be wrong here, but I don't think that the Chinese have the slightest clue what they're in for. The government can't simply crush dissent under the treads of a tank, like they did during Tienanmen, there will be witnesses everywhere, all with wireless laptops, Blackberries, blogs, cell phones, cell phone cameras, digital video recorders... everything will be covered by a dozen cameras and thousands of well-connected witnesses; it's the perfect time to make a statement, and it will be almost impossible for Beijing to stop you or retaliate. In a way, they're a little like our Bubble-Boy president, George W. Bush. He and his advisors inhabit a reality-proof bubble where dissent is not heard, so he was utterly unprepared for the idea that Colbert might use the opportunity to criticize him. Likewise, the Chinese leadership lives in a bubble where open dissent is not permitted, censorship is everywhere, and people will only criticize the government in private. After all those years of living in a heavily censored society, I think the idea that someone might actually stand up and speak out, publicly and in full view of everyone, is just inconceivable to them.
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Further restrictions for New Zealanders (Score:5, Informative)
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:So basically... (Score:5, Interesting)
You may blog at the Olympics, as long as you don't write anything that anyone wants to read.
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No Commercial Gain (Score:5, Interesting)
Never mind that the modern Olympics has become rife with corporate sponsorship and bribery allegations. Just as long as the people who are supposed to count in all this - the athletes - don't make any money! Blech.
The thing that really gets me, though, is that althletes are not allowed to make political statements in the stadium - a stadium which is a political statement in itself: 'Hey guys! China's really quite nice! Never mind us raping Tibet, killing our own people and all that - look: Shiny Olympics! We're part of the civilized world! See!'
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Re:No Commercial Gain (Score:5, Informative)
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Their infringement on athletes' rights is a scandal on its own!
Copyright?!?!?! (Score:2)
Or is this a security issue? If it is, then they need to get over it. This is getting ridiculous.
Re:Copyright?!?!?! (Score:5, Informative)
It's also trademarked to Hell and back.
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Olympic Oxymoron (Score:5, Insightful)
I guess they forgot to add the clause, "except when in China".
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Re:Olympic Oxymoron (Score:5, Insightful)
However I'd like to add that to make ethical progress (as a species), we have to bring in those we disagree with (e.g. the ones who are really wrong). Bring them in and push for incremental change. It's messy and boring, but it's the best way to do it. If we require china to play by all the rules at once, they're unlikely to participate -- no progress made. If we ease them, then we can start a process which (hopefully) will get us somewhere.
Messy, boring, and deeply unsatisfactory, yes. But it often works, and I personally can't think of a better solution that would work as well.
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Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
what's the point (Score:2)
Boycot (Score:3, Insightful)
Dear Diary (Score:4, Funny)
The group went to a sporting event today, kind of exciting.
Hopefully tomorrow I'll hear some music I like
Goodnight
What would happen? (Score:5, Interesting)
In the good old times... (Score:5, Interesting)
Today, the commercial spirit is so strong they have to carefully delimit anything that's published, pictures or words, about the event. Blogs must be carefully examined, lest there's something in there that might diminish the profits of the advertisers...
As they used to say when the Olympics were performed in the interests of sport alone, "O Tempora, O Mores!"
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I can just picture those blogs now
When I got up, I had a cool refreshing *Pepsi* while I put on my Ultra-Performance *Nike* shoes and my *Fruit of the Loom* running uniform.
Make it one paragraph to describe every little thing and then have your blog run like 10 pages a day so that you can maximize your advertising revenue.
That sounds like the Olympics of today!
Re:In the good old times... (Score:5, Informative)
Yes they were, when Avery Brundage was running the show. He also kicked the Jews off the US team in Berlin, and fought to keep the female events "decorative"...he'd be right at home in China.
rj
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Re:In the good old times... (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner. Apparently he fathered one or more children by one of his slaves. This can be labelled as rape, since the slave, willing or not, wasn't in a position to say "no".
A man can have the right idea about something, yet be a total son of a bitch about something else.
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How the IOC killed the Olympics (Score:5, Insightful)
The pre-Disney ABC coverage of the Olympics and their Wild World of Sports was the best coverage of the Olympics and no one is ever going to be that good again. Especially with the ironfisted control by the IOC. So fuck you, International Olympics Committee.
Enough is Enough (Score:2)
Even aside from the absurd profiteering, human rights violations, etc, when will people grow up and realize that we aren't monkeys anymore? Like a few weeks back when they told the guy with the prosthetic limb that he could not compete. Why is it alright for someone to dedicate their life
Re: (Score:2)
Of course this has zero to do with the Olympics, but this fellow was banned from competing in certain competitions because the technical innovation of his mechanical leg gave him an unfair advantage over those who did not have such a leg. If such a thing was allowed, where would it stop
Re:Enough is Enough (Score:4, Insightful)
If we go by your thinking, why can't athletes use those motorized, piston-powered leg attachments that make you run faster? I feel bad for the guy, but he does have an advantage.
I am a runner myself and running is my life, so I can see where they are coming from.
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Copyright? Olympics? (Score:3, Insightful)
I certainly won't be paying any attention to the Olympics, now. I'll be paying more attention to my cats in competition to see which one can get the little red dot that flies around every so often.
The world is Copyright crazy (Score:2)
The world has become more pro IP rights, extending them and including rights on things that shouldn't be copyrighted in the first place.
Link to non-registration (Score:3, Informative)
Here is the link to the article without registration.
Disinterest in the Olympics (Score:4, Insightful)
China shouldn't have been selected (Score:3, Interesting)
Furthermore.... did you know that the air in most venues is too polluted to hold ANY outdoors competitions, let alone marathons?
So why was China selected, and the other candidates dropped?
Money and power? Naaaahh... never!
Re: (Score:2)
Oh the irony.. one country that is famous for its human rights abuses, lack of freedom, lack of free speech, invasive surveillance of its people, aggressive unwarranted invasions of other countries is now forbidding its athletes from criticizing China -- a more liberal country.
I'm (slightly) joking. At least today I am, ask me in a few mon
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
if they signed (individually) a paper that they will not say anything against the regime?
That is not what the "paper" said. Indeed the "paper" is a contract all UK Olympic athletes have had to sign for the last 20 odd years, and all it is is a reaffirmation of some of the rules they are all bound by anyway. The purpose of it is to ensure the athletes are fully aware of the rules so they cannot plead ignorance if they break them, as they have signed a contract. In the case of the extra text that was added to the contract for the 2008 games, it was simply a reaffirmation of the rule that poli
Boycott the Olympics (Score:2, Flamebait)
The Rules (Score:5, Funny)
You don't talk about the Olympics.
The Olympics is about money (Score:4, Insightful)
I shall not be watching - so don't count my eyes when you work out what the TV rights will cost.
Not a terrible policy hut not great either. (Score:3, Insightful)
I see their point. They don't want their athletes using the event to springboard a journalism career. This does involve interfering with their freedom of speech though. What if they want to tell everyone about the games in a more dispassionate way? Why shouldn't they?
They also should not write about other athletes.
Privacy? A bit heavy handed.
Still pictures are allowed as long as they do not show Olympic events.
Seems the IOC has become a corporate enterprise. It used to be all about promoting sports for its own sake. It's a shame that things have gone this way.
Athletes must obtain the consent of their competitors if they wish to photograph them. Also, athletes cannot use their blogs for commercial gain."
Both of these are laudable. The first is about the privacy of the other athletes. The second is about keeping to the amateur spirit of the games.
Thus Continues the Spiral (Score:3, Interesting)
Really, the original intention of the Olympics has been completely sand-blasted away. The IOC not allowing the very people who are making the whole pageant possible to talk/blog about what the experience is like? It's the absurd cherry on top of one giant whopping sundae of hypocrisy.
I will probably be shouted down by those who can't wait to wave the patriotic flag of country X at the games, but I say down with the Olympics, down with the IOC, and down with commercialized professional sports, for that matter.
Wake me up if the world ever gets back to sports that are about community and excellence and human achievement. Until then, there are many better things to do.
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