Are you fucking kidding me?

[schmevil]

I hate the IOC. I've hated them for years but today I found an exciting new reason to despise those assholes.

Olympic mottoes borrow lines from O Canada

Two phrases borrowed from Canada's national anthem have been chosen as the mottoes for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, and organizers have already moved to protect the commercial rights to the lines.

The lines "With glowing hearts" from the English version and "Des plus brillants exploits" from the French version will soon be emblazoned on Olympic merchandise and promotional material as a national campaign to promote the mottoes is rolled out across Canada this fall.

The phrases were recently trademarked by the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee in anticipation of the announcement, it was revealed Wednesday.

Cory Doctorow had this to say:

The International Olympic Committee has trademarked a line from the Canadian national anthem, "with glowing hearts," and is threatening to sue anyone who uses the line in Canada, as part of the Vancouver Games.

This is par for the course. The IOC is a corrupt, bullying, greedy, hypocritical organization that uses trademark laws to limit the free speech and commerce of people who have the misfortune to attend or live near the games -- for example, in Athens, they forced people to take off or cover up t-shirts that had logos for companies that hadn't paid to sponsor the Olympics; and in Washington, they attacked decades-old businesses named after nearby Mount Olympia.

The Olympics cloak themselves in the rhetoric of international cooperation and development, but everything they touch turns to garbage: totalitarian surveillance camps where corporate greed rules all. The Canadian IOC ought to be disbanded over this -- it's an affront to the entire nation.

I'm not generally a ra ra nationalist but really, IOC? Really? You're trademarking our national anthem. You're trademarking the word WINTER. Could you get more patently ridiculous, more blindly grasping, more desperately in need of sucking host countries dry of every last drop of profit? More determined to keep up the pitiful, endlessly glittering, cannibalistic hucksterism and spectacle, lest the international community wake up at last to the great sham of brotherhood you've sold us?

Our national anthem is not your property. The word winter is not your fucking property.

***

In other news, this site is so me. How did I not know about this site?! Caffeine-fueled movie marathons aren't a lifestyle choice in the house of schmevil. They're an imperative.

Oh, and this! George Romero's script for Resident Evil? Donkey balls! It's not that I worship the man (as so many zombie fans do) but it's hard to deny that a Romeo Evil would have made for interesting viewing. It could not be more different from the movie that finally got made.

Comments

[tammylee.livejournal.com]

My mind is blown.
What BRASS BALLS the IOC has.
So shiny and BIG AND BRASSY!
*boycotts*

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

I KNOW! Spread the noise about this one, because it's just disgusting. Especially that our Parliament voted for special measures to allow the trademarking. I boggle.

[crimsonquills.livejournal.com]

I have to wonder how the heck they intend to enforce some of the trademarks they've put in. Part of me says they just won't, but if they don't intend to try, why bother with the trademark in the first place? I'm baffled.

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

That's going to be a challenge, certainly. WINTER? I mean, come on. People are going to use that for commercial purposes during the olympics. It's just ridiculous. I guess it'll be interesting to see how it turns out.

[crimsonquills.livejournal.com]

I didn't know about "winter" before you posted, but I had heard about and boggled over them trademarking "friend".

I mean, it's not like these words haven't been in use for commerical purposes in Canada for decades, at least.

[pandanoai.livejournal.com]

That's o_0 really not good at all! I can't believe they're allowed to get away with that!