Olympic Committee Prohibits Streaming Apps, Vines and GIFs From Its Events (techcrunch.com) 188
An anonymous reader writes: The Olympics Committee has introduced a new set of social media guidelines for the 2016 games. Not only will streaming applications and vines be prohibited, but GIFs will be too. TechCrunch reports: "Part of the new restriction appears in the official broadcast rules (PDF), under 'Internet and Mobile Platforms': '[...] the use of Olympic Material transformed into graphic animated formats such as animated GIFs (i.e. GIFV), GFY, WebM, or short video formats such as Vines and others, is expressly prohibited.' Then, in the FAQ for the social and digital media guidelines (PDF): 'Broadcasting images via life-streaming applications (e.g. Periscope, Meerkat) is prohibited inside Olympic venues.' The versions of these documents updated for the 2014 games in Sochi don't have any comparable language, or at least nothing this specific. A possible exception is the 'Photographer's Undertaking,' which states: 'The dissemination of moving images or sound captured in an Olympic venue, through any media, including display on the internet, Mobile Platform and other interactive media or electronic medium, is strictly prohibited.'"
ioc money (Score:1)
Dont mess with the IOC's money.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
you said the O word with out paying the fee there is a fine for that.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Thats triple damage buddy. Will you be paying by cheque or credit card?
Re: (Score:2)
Credit card: only as long as it is visa card [theguardian.com].
Re: (Score:2)
Question is . . . .what's in YOUR wallet ?? (grin)
Re: (Score:2)
Bearer bonds
Re: (Score:3)
I have no choice but to do just that. Lacking a TV and any other means to access moving reports about the various events, I guess the sponsors will have to do without my eyeballs.
Re:ioc money (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
and just like that the Olympics became invisible to two whole generations because a third older generation want to maintain control of distribution.
I would say, not so much invisible, but irrelevant and unimportant. Given the plethora of stories of the truly epic level of fail of the Rio Olympics, it's probably best not to watch.
Unless, suddenly, we get something like super-virulent flesh-eating bacteria start stripping athletes to the bone mid-event. That might get a few minutes of attention. . . as it's about the ONLY utter failure we haven't seen so far. .
Re: (Score:2)
The last "O" I paid any significant attention to was the 1972 games in Munich.. The only reason for that was the fact I was in the military, stationed near Munich, and was given a ticket to one of the events. Of course that event was scheduled the day the terrorists decided to do their business, postponing my ticketed event
to later, though I did get to see it at the postponed time.. Since then, I have zero interest in those games...
Re: (Score:2)
Better yet, don't mess with the IOC. Just avoid the olympics entirely. Then we'll see how quickly they realize the stupidity of their decisions. Maybe.
If you're curious how the games turned out, but you don't want to encourage the major news organizations to report on the Olympics, then either
1) check with Wikipedia (which is usually updated pretty quickly), or
2) do an Internet search with a search engine that's not well-known like Google or Bing (ex: Ecosia), and in the resulting list of news listings on the game, click the link of a smaller-sized newspaper.
Re: (Score:3)
I have not bothered with the Olympics for decades, though I have caught the opening and closing ceremony occasionally. I will probably start watching it when genetically modified humans start taking part, that is going to be fascinating.
Re: (Score:2)
Skateboarding is now in. Maybe they can integrate the sharks into that?
Re: (Score:2)
Better yet, don't mess with the IOC. Just avoid the olympics entirely. Then we'll see how quickly they realize the stupidity of their decisions. Maybe.
Exactly. Don't boycott the Olympics; simply IGNORE them.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Prohibit television broadcasts, too.
They're fine so long as they use Animated PNG! :-D
Re: (Score:3)
That's where the money is. The next step will be prohibiting memories and verbal descriptions of events. So be careful when you describe how the Zika-infected Bulgarian weightlifter crapped his drawers while executing the dead lift. You may be facing a lawsuit.
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/... [bodybuilding.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Do us a big favor (Score:1)
While it's almost certainly not permitted to broadcast your own play-by-play in real-time, you can certainly give those accounts at a later time. MLB prohibits using the calls by the announcers without permission. They're part of the broadcast, so it's logical that they would be subject to copyright.
Reporting facts versus rebroadcasting (Score:2)
While it's almost certainly not permitted to broadcast your own play-by-play in real-time, you can certainly give those accounts at a later time.
You can however broadcast a play-by-play of the broadcast without permission. Oh, they could bring a lawsuit over it but I think you'd be on safe legal ground. That's basically what media companies do all the time. Nothing illegal about real time second hand report of events. ABC is under no obligation to kowtow to NBC regarding reporting facts as long as they don't use copyrighted materials or trademarks without permission.
MLB prohibits using the calls by the announcers without permission.
MLB can claim to prohibit whatever they want but unless you are actually rebroad
Re: (Score:2)
A lot of this sort of BS would not hold up in court, if it were actually tested. Specifically, a friend of mine who practices law told me once, in no uncertain terms, that if someone actually took the NFL to court over their whole "Thou shall not utter the word 'Superbowl' unless you are one of our sponsoring partners we sold the rights to this year." thing would get handily shot down if ever taken to trial. The issue is that very few entities can afford the legal bills to take on the NFL and bring a case
Re: Do us a big favor (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
> The players are owned by no one, unlike the MLB
You're saying the MLB uses slaves?
Re: (Score:2)
MLB, among other sports, has contracts that restrict players from switching teams freely. A MLB player on the Detroit Tigers team would have a choice between playing for the Tigers or not playing. That's enough to colloquially say the Tigers own the player, without being actual slavery.
Re: (Score:2)
Luckily, you're still fine if you ask someone: "Did you see that ludicrous display last night?"
Re: (Score:2)
Not any more, it's not. The Bulgarian weightlifter shitting his britches ruined it for everyone.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
They are working on mind wipe technology for that. It will be like those pictures they take at amusement parks at the end of a ride that you can then pay to get a copy of. Want to keep that memory of your team winning the Gold? Pay up or get wiped on the way out!
Re: (Score:2)
Prohibit television broadcasts, too.
Why? Those don't show any sports, either.
Re: (Score:2)
Seriously fuck the Olympics (Score:5, Insightful)
It's a big corrupt waste of time and resources, it funnels huge amounts of money out of the lower and middle class into the pockets of the wealthy and at the expense of nations..
fuck the Olympics so fucking much
Re: (Score:2)
"It's a big corrupt waste of time and resources, it funnels huge amounts of money out of the lower and middle class into the pockets of the wealthy and at the expense of nations."
It is a big STUPID corrupt waste etc.
Why they think they can funnel big amounts of money but because it used to be a world-level event? What do they think these policies will do to world-wide interest on the Olympics? How much money do they think they'll be able to funnel away once nobody pays attention to the event?
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Seriously fuck the Olympics (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually that would be a pity. There are quite a few sports that only get to be dragged into the limelight every 4 years. And these athletes are by no means any worse than those football or basketball players that you have to endure weekend after weekend. There are some rather interesting sports that are incredibly interesting to watch but simply have nobody lobbying for them.
Yes, the whole corrupt bureaucracy around it is despicable. But why do you want to punish the athletes for it, that would just add injury to insult.
Re: (Score:3)
Mind telling us what SHOULD be left on TV? Because the same could be said about pretty much any kind of entertainment. By your logic you can't even show Opera or Ballet, and Doctor Who would certainly be out.
Re: (Score:3)
So the only thing allowed on TV are documentaries and educational programming?
There's a channel for you. It's called PBS.
Re: (Score:3)
Just for old people then. (Score:1)
I guess they're just for old people now.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Just not excited, won't be watching any Olympics (Score:5, Interesting)
On any media at all.
But the IOC's over-the-top "We own it all!" is just a bit much. They're almost to the point of enforcing death penalty should someone even think about posting a selfie of themselves at the Olympics.
Re:Just not excited, won't be watching any Olympic (Score:5, Funny)
On any media at all.
But the IOC's over-the-top "We own it all!" is just a bit much. They're almost to the point of enforcing death penalty should someone even think about posting a selfie of themselves at the Olympics.
Dear mpercy,
In a recent slashdot post, you used the word "Olympics" without the express written permission of the International Olympic Committee. This constitutes copyright infringement and unauthorized use of our intellectual property. To avoid a lawsuit, send us $980 within the next 24 hours, or face the wrath of our lawyers. Do not delay; we know where your little girl goes to school.
Yours Truly,
The International Olympic Committee
An international, non-profit, non-governmental organization
Exactly! (Score:2)
Won't be surprised when the certified mail or "you've been served" paperwork arrives.
Re:Just not excited, won't be watching any Olympic (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Ahh! "word" not "work". *sigh*
Thank GOD that slashdot doesn't allow any super-advanced features like editing a post, even for a 2-minute period after posting. Because that would just be pandering to its users, eh?
Seriously, slashdot- get your shit together and let people edit a fucking post. If you're worried about malicious edits, make posts editable for some short period after they've been posted. A couple of minutes would do it, just long enough to fix a typo or something.
Now, cue the anal-retentive douche bags who'll feel that this
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Just not excited, won't be watching any Olympi (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
I wonder what happens when they try to sue a mountain range [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:2)
Greece would have to rename it.
Which is pretty much what I'd do if I was Greece, to distance themselves from this travesty.
Re: (Score:2)
The IOC? Hell no, sell it to the highest bidder. Can you imagine "The Coca Cola Mountain Range" in every atlas, on every globe...?
Re: (Score:3)
You joke, but the Olympic Mountains are actually referenced in the United States code [cornell.edu] related to the Olympic Committee. Based on my reading (IANAL) it seems that it would be illegal to name a new skiing business after the mountains if it didn't exist before 1998.
Re: (Score:2)
That started to happen with the Olympic Restaurant in Denver in 1976, but Colorado told the Olympics to piss off for different reasons, and the lawsuit fizzled out.
Re:Just not excited, won't be watching any Olympic (Score:5, Insightful)
We used to record the broadcasts, first on VCR of course, and later Tivo. But since the cable companies have obsoleted both of those, plus our PC tuners, with encrypted digital transmission, we simply won't watch at all. We are in a valley that does not receive any over-the-air signals so we don't have a choice - we must pay to watch television, even broadcast. We refuse to pay even more than we already are just to do what we've done since the late 70s - record television for later viewing and/or skipping of segments/advertisements we are not interested in watching. The amount of absolute crap that is mixed in with every few minutes of actual events and competitions is just too great. If we can't skip over the shit and watch the important stuff, fuck it.
Because of this, our television watching has significantly decreased, as has our programming package (and also our monthly bill). When the recording options went to shit, we started watching "on demand" instead, and if it wasn't on that, we just didn't watch it. But now the cable company is further trying to extort even more money out of us by reducing "on demand" offerings to "HD only", which just pisses us off even more (we do not have a fancy new set). And to add even more headache, what on demand programming that had closed captions, no longer does. Cable company doesn't care because "on demand" is not required to carry captions like the live broadcasts. We of course are told we can (pay to) subscribe to their DVR service and record programming which would then have the captions preserved during playback. Fuck.
Fascist capitalists (Score:4, Insightful)
are running the show.
Wasn't the Olympics supposed to be about the worldwide celebration of amateur sport?
That is, sport done for the love of it, not for money.
This is what anonymization services were invented for, people!
Re:Fascist capitalists (Score:4, Informative)
It struggled on until 1990 when they passed the "Eddie the Eagle rule" effectively ensuring that only pros could compete.
Re: (Score:3)
For those that don't know, the Eddie the Eagle Rule requires athletes to be in the top 50 or top 30% in international competition, whichever is fewer.
time for an athlete revolt? (Score:1)
Without the athletes, the IOCCC - no wait, that's the international obfuscated C code contest - uhm... the IOC is it? has nothing.
It seems long past time for athletes to get together and say "No, fuck that. Either you let us record our own events, or we're not participating. Our sideways smartphone video and looped animated GIFs are not going to compete with NBC's twenty million dollar television cameras. Just ease the fuck up already and stop power tripping all over that shit."
The athletes have all the
Does anyone even watch the Olympics anymore? (Score:4, Interesting)
Does anyone even watch the Olympics anymore? For me, it just seems like a good way to block regularly scheduled programming. We get it, you sport.
If they had a channel dedicated to olympics that you had to opt-in to... few would bother.
Re: (Score:2)
Do they actually even show the Olympics anymore?
Last time I tried to watch them, it was wall to wall profile pieces on athletes and the hardships they overcame, spliced with a few local travel pieces, updates on medal counts, post event athlete interviews and medal ceremonies. When they ran out of commercials they occasionally threw in the last 5 seconds of an event.
That is unless it was an event no one cares about like the 500 mile cycling road race - which they showed in it's uncut entirety, at the expen
Re: (Score:2)
I am really enjoying the Olympic Soccer games, but as for the general Olympic sports no I agree with you, very few are watching, compared to other international sporting events.
They don't want any videos... (Score:2)
They don't want any videos of people with Zika getting out.
Man, talk about pricing yourself out of business (Score:5, Insightful)
Someone in the IOC needs to be picked up an shooken - hard.
I guess this means that proud parents can't tweet pictures of their medal winning children.
Attendees can't talk about what a great experience they're having.
Everybody else ignoring what's going on there.
Re:Man, talk about pricing yourself out of busines (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe if I saw random clips and pictures from the Olympics I might think about watching through some approved channel. As it stands, I likely will forget they are on and not watch at all.
Re: (Score:2)
I wish that was an option in Denmark. Both of the major OTA TV channels are playing the Olympics non-stop, this after a summer of being full of Vuelta-something-España and Tour de France.
Movies? Oh, every Friday night one of the channels has a 'vote' for a movie from the 70s, 80s, or 90s.
Me thinks they're out of money.
Re: (Score:2)
Excitement aborted (Score:5, Insightful)
If they're trying to prevent people from getting excited about the Olympics or share their enthusiasm, they've succeeded. At this point I really couldn't give a crap about the Olympic games. Now I just feel sorry for the athletes who are risking disease over something the IOC seems dead set on restricting access to.
The only way to fix this. (Score:2)
This is very sad for me to say for those who have future Olympic dreams, but between the nightmare that is Rio infrastructure/security and this latest move to try and control all media, I sincerely hope that all future Olympic venues withdraw, and every other city on the planet tells the IOC to go fuck themselves.
Perhaps that will be a gentle enough reminder as to why they should not act so damn arrogant.
Alternatives (Score:2)
So I'm assuming APNGs, MNGs, and WEBMs are OK?
ahem: NOBODY owns historical events (Score:2, Informative)
Multinational meg-corps love to insist that they own everything and people must pay them, but that just aint so.
WARNING: They DO own their copyrighted material, like logos, trademarks, commentary they create, artistic visual elements, etc. so people need to be careful about that stuff, but they DO NOT own the facts of the historical events.
In the US, Pro football and pro baseball leagues are always insisting that nobody can report on the games without permission (i.e. $$$$) and they count on everybody being
Because all those selfies destroyed Beijing (Score:2)
They need to do this, because all those selfies that athletes took during the parade destroyed the Beijing Olympics. Oh wait... they didn't.
A Complete Mess (Score:3)
Seriously, I'm having trouble deciding whether this is old-fashioned out-of-control money-grubbing, or it's the IOC trying to keep a lid what is shaping up to be a gigantic figurative (and, in the case of the swimming events, literal) shit-show.
There's a reason. (Score:5, Informative)
There's a reason they're doing this. It's not just that the IOC is incredibly greedy. It's that their greed is fueled by NBC's money, and NBC is damn well going to get their pound of flesh for the $1.29 billion [usatoday.com] they paid for exclusive rights. If recent news reports are accurate, NBC is just barely breaking even, having sold $1.2 billion [reuters.com] in advertising so far.
So sure, blame IOC's greed. But don't forget to blame NBC's greed too. They want every second of Olympic imagery to be surrounded by inescapable commercials, or they could be in serious trouble. If the interest of advertisers falls off even a tiny bit, they start losing money on the Games, and they have a contract out through 2032.
Re: (Score:3)
Automated GIFs? (Score:3)
What if the GIFs are produced automatically? My photo automatically uploads all photos to Google Photos. If Google notices that a group of photos comprise a sequence of events, it will helpfully produce an animated version of all of those images together. Is Google violating the IOC's rules if I were to photograph an event and happened to capture enough for Google to put together an animated GIF?
Re: (Score:2)
You'd be held responsible. Google would be considered the tool which you used rather than it's own actor and you probably agreed to TOS that puts the liability on you anyway. They might include Google in the lawsuit but only if they figured it was worth challenging real lawyers instead of anyone you can afford as a real human.
Take a page from the NFL's playbook (Score:5, Insightful)
They've figured out that people attending these events aren't going to take anybody's broadcast revenues by sharing on social media. It's about sharing the experience with their friends and family. A picture, or video clip, that shows...I was here!! This helps build up the hype, viewership, and attendance overall.
Re:Take a page from the NFL's playbook (Score:5, Insightful)
The Olympics charge the broadcast and cable companies a fortune for coverage rights. Comcast NBC paid $1.23 billion for Rio alone.
In return for all that money, the IOC tries to make sure viewers HAVE to use the various channels and outlets who paid. They have to defend the licenses they sold for so much money. If people can get Olympics footage or see the games without a licenced TV partner involved, the IOC won't be able to charge as much money.
And yeah it is all about money. The IOC could care less about the sports. It's all about license fees and rights and getting paid enormous sums to watch poor atheletes living in squalor back home try to compete. They make a lot of money off these kids.
NBC has contracted through 2032 to carry the games so they are dropping close to 20 billion dollars on this stuff. The IOC better defend that. Or else.
My response is to not watch any of the coverage. I used to be a rabid Olympics viewer. But it all changed after 1996 when I was much too close to the games and saw first hand it really is all about the money, not the sport and not the atheletes.
Re: (Score:3)
That's irrelevant. Someone sharing 15 seconds of blurry, shaky, low resolution[*] cellphone footage is not remotely comparable to a professional camera operator with a high end 4K camera and a lens costing 20 grand.
NBC are paying through the nose to do the latter, and the former isn't a substitute. It's just outright stupidity on the part of the IOC.
[*] There are not many phones that actually have resolving power at 1080p. I mean I've seen the videos and while techincally you have 1920x1080 pixels in few c
Re: (Score:3)
I tend to lean toward the perspective of the OP. To a TV station, more viewers means they can sell advertising time at a higher price. Thus, viewers indirectly translate to profit for NBC. To think that the IOC needs to "protect" NBC from cell phone video assumes that NBC would lose viewers because of it.
I find it hard to imagine that someone with access to TV, who is actually interested in the events, would forego TV coverage in favor of amateur cell phone video and animated gifs.
I'd start from the hypo
Re: (Score:2)
The Olympics charge the broadcast and cable companies a fortune for coverage rights. Comcast NBC paid $1.23 billion for Rio alone.
I really dislike the fact that a bunch of elites are making money off the backs of the Olympic athletes and the people watching and attending the games. Countries should contribute funding, but commercial exploitation/advertising should be prohibited.
There should be official coverage that's available to watch for free over the Internet or other broadcast channels. Third-parties should be free to broadcast their own coverage if they want to.
How are they going to enforce this? (Score:3)
Are they going to outright block access to the streaming apps' servers (hello VPN/Proxy!), or make everyone take out their smartphone and prove they don't have Periscope installed on it before they are let in the door?
Two can play at that game (Score:2)
Not necessarily in response to this, but because I want to, I have banned all Olympics TV coverage from my home. Not one single moment of it will appear on any TV, tablet, phone, laptop, roku, talking trout on the wall or written in blood on the walls.
The IOC is corrupt and full of shit and the USOC is right up there with them. They can all go to hell. But meanwhile, I won't watch and I won't spend a dime on sponsored stuff. Because any business who'd sponsor this is either stupid for ignoring the crimes
Re: (Score:2)
Yep. If I see an Olympics sponsorship icon on a product, I buy something else, even if the other product is clearly inferior. Fuck the Olympics, and all those who support it. It's a festering shit-show and it has been for many an olympiad.
Do they stop also ASCII art ?!? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I would love to see olimpic games on my old VT220 terminal...
Your old VT220 doesn't have fast enough serial to do full-screen ASCII graphics. You're going to need a vastly faster terminal for that.
Alternate (non-IOC) games (Score:2)
The IOC's olympic games aren't the only way to have sports competitions.
It's probably too late for this year, but I'd love to see some of the athletes raise money (crowdfunding?) to move their competition somewhere else, and not have anything to do with the IOC. Just hold their competition on their own.
For example, for the sports [olympic.org] that are scheduled to take place in polluted water - raise money for those athletes to drop out of the Olympic competitions, and to move to another location with clean water. If th
Olympic Committee can go f*ck itself. (Score:2)
Corrupt bunch of douchebags.
EOM
No wonder they can't sell tickets. (Score:2)
What good is it to pay so much money for tickets and travel to see the events if you can't even brag about it?
If it's really all about the money... (Score:2)
Then NBC should contract with ISIS to make sure there's a terrorist event. Nothing glues eyeballs to the TV like something blowing up and killing some athletes.
I mean, when you're spending 1.29 Billion, what's another million or two to make sure somebody gets killed on live TV? Didn't you folks ever see the movie "Network" ?
Re: (Score:2)
Too much security to deal with. Just look for the local news vans at the Black Friday sales gatherings for nice and newsworthy that hits folks close to home (shopping)
On the one hand... (Score:2)
... GOOD, because who cares about the Olympics anyway? The less I hear/see about it the better... ...BAD, corporate Nazis suck.
Sorry, no (Score:2)
"expressly prohibited"
Brazil, as a signatory to the Berne Convention, makes this perfectly legal no matter what the IOC says.
Re: coffee was over the limit (Score:2)
Coffee is a Coke product. It's Georgia Peach coffee, and it's literally big in Japan. It tastes so bad to American palettes that it's a beverage allowed to be brought in from the outside to Coke headquarters in Atlanta.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't think US law applies in Brazil.
Re: (Score:3)
I also hate NBC using Bob Costas as a studio host for the Olympics. That's a waste. Aside from the retiring Vin Scully, he's the best baseball announcers there is now. I'm sure he can do other sports very well. When baseball returns in 2020, I sure hope NBC has Costas call some of those games.
I love watching Bob Costas. He seems to realize that it's all complete crap, and so has fun with it. He does try to keep things moving along, during the interminable interviews and back-story pieces; I get the impression he'd really just rather have more sports and less talk.
Nearly nude olympics (Score:2)
If they returned it to the original Greek format (naked), I might be interested. Otherwise... yawn.
Watch beach volleyball. They're getting pretty close. A really aggressive game of "keep the balloon from hitting the floor" isn't interesting enough by itself so they mandated bikinis as the required uniform. A little T&A never hurt ratings right?