23 Jul 12 | Uncategorized
A village magazine has been barred from sale along the route of the 2012 Olympic cycling road race.
After the success of Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Mark Cavendish in the Tour de France this year, thousands are expected to flock to Box Hill, a climb on the route of the road race, to cheer on British sport’s newest heroes. But local residents will not be allowed to sell their parish magazine, the Box Hill News, to the crowds.
According to the Leatherhead Advertiser, locals had planned an Olympic edition of their magazine, featuring an article by Keith Brock, a member of Great Britain’s 1948 London Olympic cycling team, with money raised going to charity.
But former editor June Austin says she was told that only official LOCOG sponsor merchandise would be allowed to be sold in the immediate vicinity of the race.
Ms Austin said:
“They said the whole area would be controlled by Locog so if you’re not an Olympic sponsor, you can’t sell anything there.
“It would have been such an opportunity to raise money for charities in the area and they’re missing out; all the money will go to the big companies.”
You have to wonder who’s running public relations for the London Olympic Games. While one can understand the need to protect commercial concerns, the games, which were sold to Londoners as inclusive, community-enhancing and all those nice things, are taking on the feel of an authoritarian imposition on peoples lives, rather than something to be celebrated.
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With the security apparatus in place for the London Olympics, due to begin next week, Katitza Rodriguez and Rebecca Bowe look at how intense surveillance can threaten privacy long after the games are over
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19 Jul 12 | News and features, United Kingdom
Natalie Haynes gets to grips with the rules and regulations policing the brand of the London Games
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13 Jul 12 | Digital Freedom, Uncategorized
We’ve heard a lot about how the Olympics Games will take over London in the past few weeks: missile launchers on rooftops, non-approved chips banned from the Olympic site, protest threatened, Twitter accounts censored. But we must admit we hadn’t noticed the Olympic organisers attempts to change the way the entire internet works. Our attention has been drawn to the terms of use of the London 2012 website, which make it very clear under what circumstances you’re allowed link to the site:
- Links to the Site. You may create your own link to the Site, provided that your link is in a text-only format. You may not use any link to the Site as a method of creating an unauthorised association between an organisation, business, goods or services and London 2012, and agree that no such link shall portray us or any other official London 2012 organisations (or our or their activities, products or services) in a false, misleading, derogatory or otherwise objectionable manner. The use of our logo or any other Olympic or London 2012 Mark(s) as a link to the Site is not permitted. View our guidelines on Use of the Games’ Marks.
Got that? You’re only allowed link to the official site of the Olympics if you’re going to say nice things about the Olympics.
This obviously presents a problem. I really, really want to say that this is one of the silliest things I’ve read in my entire life, and that it demonstrates a level of control freakery that even the most hardened Olympisceptic could not have imagined. But the problem with that is that I’d be breaking the rules by linking to the page containing this information so that you could read it for yourself.
So I’m not going to say that. I’m going to say that this is a brilliant piece of brand management that’s not at all open to ridicule and scorn, and that’s it’s extremely unlikely that anyone would ever make a joke about this rule by linking to the Olympic site with language that could be “false, misleading, derogatory or otherwise objectionable”.
Here’s the link to the eminently sensible Terms of Use
Padraig Reidy is News Editor at Index on Censorship
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