Oh, boy. Well, I knew they were sticklers for brand rapacity
at the Olympics here, but this takes the cake! Apparently, the US Olympic
Committee has sent a “cease and desist” letter to some knitters who wanted to
have a knitting Olympics called the “Ravelympics”. This is not only bad
sportsmanship, but it’s completely ridiculous to boot! Shame on the USOC for this!
First of all, the Olympics has been around for thousands of
years, and while there may be a business called the Olympics, only the use of
the five rings logo or calling yourself the US Olympic Committee when you’re
not, etc., ought to be actionable. The people who run the Olympics can sue
people (if they’re jerks), but they should not be permitted to own the word “Olympics”, since it was created by others
years and years ago, and as such is surely in the public domain. (Besides,
whenever anyone else uses the word/name “Olympics”, it’s free advertising for
your athletic competition, you fools!) Plus, by bullying and threatening anyone
who uses the word “Olympics” in any but the official way, you’ll surely give
the Olympics a far worse name and reputation than anyone else possibly could!
(Well, maybe someone possibly
could, but hopefully they won’t.) This is as bad of an abuse of the system as
still continuing to charge royalties for the “Birthday Song” (which some
asinine company does, apparently, even though it was written in the 1800s by
someone not related to them at all. They should have gotten the 75 years, or
however long it is, for buying her out, but that’s it; and once it became such
a cultural staple, in the interest of politeness, they should have given it
up).
But the word “Ravelympics” only has a part of the word
“Olympics” in it anyway. So, what, does the US Olympic Committee own all of the
letters in the word “Olympics”, and nobody’s allowed to use any of them unless
they grovel and pay-through-the-nose? This is the height of arrogance, and only
a jerk would insult old ladies like this! (Seriously, this is akin to elder
abuse, is it not?) No class…
The funny thing about this is that in the article (link
below) about this incident, the writer complains that the letter the USOC sent
the knitting conspiracy was deliberately insulting, and then he says: “Some
knitters sitting in front of the TV making a scarf nobody’s ever going to wear
hardly seems like a threat to the Olympic movement.” Oh, so in objecting to and
revealing this slander of knitters, you make another one yourself? Well, you,
sir, might just get a letter from this knitting group in response to your
article, saying: “You’d better wear that scarf I made for you, or else you’ll
be found hanging from it!”
