The Sports Journalists' Association reports that the International Olympic Committee has issued a four-page guide that permits the athlete blogs at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games. The rules include a broad range of restrictions, including no sound, video, photographs of Olympic action or medal ceremonies, no interviews or news about […]
Post Tagged with: "ioc"
IOC to Drop Athlete Blogging Ban
Earlier this month, I wrote about sports and the Internet, pointing to restrictions by the International Olympic Committee that blocked athletes from blogging under threat of disqualification. Peter Black provides word that that the IOC appears ready to change its policy and will now allow athletes to blog at the […]
Olympic Marks Bill Amended to Protect Bloggers and Parody
The Industry Committee completed its short review of Bill C-47 this morning by approving several amendments to the bill. These notably include amending the exceptions provision (which previously only referred to the use of the Olympic marks for criticism or in the publication or broadcast of a news report) in two important ways. First, parody was added to the list, so that the use of the Olympic marks for parody purposes falls outside the Act. Second, the bill now specifically refers to electronic media as enjoying the same exception as other forms of media.
The importance of these amendments could extend far beyond this particular bill. In the case of the parody exception, it arguably highlights a clear shortcoming in current Canadian law (parody is missing from the Copyright Act as well) – one that ought to be addressed in any future intellectual property reform package. Moreover, providing specific protection for electronic media in this bill may open the door to similar media equality in other legal areas.
While the Committee added several other amendments (including a sunset clause for Schedule 3, which contains many generic words), the other notable occurrence was the submission of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada, a leading Canadian IP organization, and its Past-President Cynthia Rowden. IPIC did the profession proud – as the only neutral, non-governmental witness to appear before the committee, it rightly criticized the bill for providing exceptional rights to one specific group.
Olympic Marks Bill on the Fast Track
Bill C-47, the government's Olympic marks legislation, has been quietly placed on the fast track. The very fast track. With no warning, the bill heads to committee this week with hearings today (Industry Canada, VANOC) and Tuesday (several Olympic athletes and committees, clause by clause). With clause-by-clause review already on the schedule, the Industry Committee will only conduct a limited review and the bill could head back to the full House of Commons for third and final reading by the end of the week.
I've posted several items about the bill, expressing concern about substantive shortcomings and legislative fairness. Given the government's determination to fast track this bill, the most that can be done is to suggest some modest reforms to the bill (dropping the bill is out of the question and major surgery is not permitted at this stage). With that in mind, the Committee should consider recommending at least two changes:
C-47 Undermines Olympic Spirit
My weekly Law Bytes column (Toronto Star version, homepage version) focuses on Bill C-47, the Olympic and Paralympic Marks Act, which I think is better characterized as the Olympic Corporate Sponsor Protection Act. The column synthesizes my comments from two earlier postings on the bill (here and here), namely that […]