quote:

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Existing legislation already prevents non-official sponsors from using distinctive "Olympic marks" like the Olympic rings.

But the new bill will make it illegal to combine words like "games", "medals", "gold", "2012", "sponsor" or "summer" in any form of advertising.

Breaches can be punished by fines of up to £20,000, or unlimited fines in more serious cases.

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This nonsense is of course reminiscent of the insanity that we saw unfold in the interests of corporate sponsorship during each of the previous few games, whereat the IOC inevitably celebrated the universality of the "Olympic spirit" by making it illegal to use the term without paying them absolutely gigantic quantities of money.

The phenomenon was particularly hilarious at the Athens games, where the 'Olympic' name and notion have their ancestry, and at the Atlanta games, where businesses in Olympia, Washington were taken to court for using the name of their city in print or trademarks.

The IOC garnered some more bad press by forcing the Gay Olympics to drop the Olympic name, resulting in the Gay Games.

Really, does anyone not despise the IOC and everything they stand for at this point? It's really hard to take the Olympics...err...sorry, the...games...umm...okay, the, well, those things that happen every few years where people...do...sports (phew, avoided a lawsuit) when it's being run by a group of people who make even their large corporate advertisers look like angels by comparison.

[ 16 August 2005: Message edited by: Yst ]