"A subgroup of the IOC press commission recently concluded that blogging by athletes would not violate Olympic rules.
It proposed that athletes be allowed to blog, on condition they receive no payment, post their entries as a personal 'diary or journal' and do not use photos, video or audio obtained at the games."
The good old International Olympic Committee are living in a world of their own. By next year, many mobile phones in China will have 3-5 Megapixel cameras in them. Bet that many of those new cameras are in the stadia....the Chinese are not going to ban the public from bringing their mobile phones are they? So is the IOC going to sue the public like the music industry? When will these guys realise that they have lost control over personal blogs. Will they disqualify an athlete for posting a shot of their winning moment? Will these guys see the light in time - frankly I doubt it. Short-term profits are clouding the huge amount of free publicity that blogs like these could give to sport in general.
The reason my blog seems to be banned in China is that I have suggested the Olympics are going to fail to be spectacular for another reason. It is going to be unusually hot. Look at the temmperatures for Beijing in the last 4 years for August. Add to that - the sand storms. Sure glad I'm not competing....
During the 2000 and 2004 Games, the IOC managed to stop some online radio stations e.g. Radio Australia's online service because they had not paid for worldwide rights. By 2012 of course, your camera phone will be able to tell where and when you took a photo, allowing Vodafone or whoever to bill you on the IOC's behalf.
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