On October 15th, Michalis Nikitaridis sent a message outlining his problems with the Athens organizing committee for the 2004 Olympic Games. Basically, he had been told by the committee's attorney that the committee claimed exclusive right to use or license use of a variety of related terms, including "Olympic", "Olympiade", "Athens 2004", "Olympic Games - Athens 2004", "Olympic Games - Greece" and any other relevant term in greek or any foreign laguage, and that use of those terms "in the Internet, or anywhere else, without the written permission of Athens 2004 is, after the above, a legal crime, threatened by harsh penalties." There were several responses, uniformly deriding the arrogance of the committee. As far as I can remember, none of the responses offered a quantification of the problem the committee might face in enforcing its ban on the internet (let alone, "anywhere else"). I've just made a quick search of Yahoo's listings for "Olympic." It found 62 categories and 1348 sites using that term! Good luck to the Athens committee in trying to tell Washington's Olympic National Park they'll have to change the name. Or that the Olympic mountain range and Olympic Peninsula will have to be deleted from the atlas. Interesting thought: Maybe some of those atlases were copyrighted before the organization of the IOC and the copyright holders could get an injunction prohibiting the Olympic Games from using the term "Olympic." Three other examples of enforcement problems: Olympic Arms produces AR-15s, 1911 pistols and other firearms. Maybe it would be best to deliver their injunction by telephone. Want to tackle Olympic Vineyard Christian Fellowship on the issue of exercise of religious freedom in its choice of name? Improv Olympic West is the website for an improvisational comedy organization. Maybe Athens could post further examples of jokes from its legal team with them, instead of harassing sports websites. Cheers, Roger
