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IOC will prevent spectators from publishing Olympics online
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by jamessta | July 24, 2008 at 10:34 pm
203 views | 5 Recommendations | 3 comments
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"For the first time, digital technology will liberate how we all, sitting outside, see the Games." But the IOC will not allow spectators to publish on the internet photos and video taken inside Olympic venues.
Think about it for a moment - what will the overwhelming majority of spectators nationality be? - Chinese would be a good bet, fervent netizens (253 million according to the Internet Network Information Center in its 22nd Indernet Development Report) - exactly how will the IOC enforce it's ban on spectators publishing on the internet photos and video taken inside Olympic venues?
Robert Woodward reports that the IOC has video fingerprinting and Web-crawling technology that it will use to prevent content being uploaded and to track illegal content [ source http://www.shanghaidaily.com/emagazine ]
Even if you accept that this is technologically feasible - it is a struggle to understand how they intend to execute their plan - I can't see 'cease and desist' orders being of much weight in downtown Beijing. The availablilty of commercial IP (Intellectual Property) on China's biggest search engine, Baidu.com will give you a taste of how impotent Multinational Corporations are in protecting their IP in China - and they don't have the same morally dubious claims to ownership of material as the IOC is making for Chinese Sports fans snapping and blogging their family day out from their iPhones - having already paid a month's salary for a ticket.
Perhaps the IOC has received some insider's instructions on how to run a Great Firewall? - if not, this plan looks as silly as it is repugnant.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (3)
at 00:16 on July 25th, 2008
jamessta, I like this story. It's good stuff.
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D.C.Attyat 03:22 on July 25th, 2008
free Tibet. unholy alliance's between fictional governments disguised as beverage corporations and nation states mentally dissociative during my pizza break.
D.C.Atty has contributed a photo to this story.
at 03:40 on July 25th, 2008
Ridiculous. The IOC might claim they have the rights to images taken inside it's stadiums and venues (the NFL and others keep the rights to any shots taken inside the venues), there is zero way they can tell people not to blog or post online about it.
Aside from the issue of enforcing it, which is impossible, the legality of telling someone they can't post their own thoughts on events is dubious at best, and laughable at worst. The fact that it's happening in China, which has no freedom of speech laws, makes this all the more concerning.