IOC Censors Games

THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE'S double sin of granting media access to a few TV networks and actively banning web coverage for the games results in the total invisibility of most Olympic sports. 

Did you see the Judo competition? How about sailing? What about handball, badminton or the pentathlon?

Many events are covered during the day, when most people are at work. Other events aren't covered at all. 

The tragedy is that there's no logistical or technical reason why we can't all see video coverage of every single event. You're missing the events because the IOC has spent millions of dollars to *prevent* you from seeing them. The IOC net-video Gestapo has thus far busted more than 30 web sites, all of which have backed down in the face of IOC copyright violation lawsuits. 

Rather than promoting the spirit of internationalism, enthusiasm over specific Olympic events and participation in the Olympic movement by the greatest number of people, the IOC is actually spending millions of dollars to oppose all that. It's wrong. 

Here's why they do it: Host countries and the IOC pay for the Olympics, in part, by selling media-access monopolies. To preserve those monopolies, the IOC has placed an outright ban on web video of events. NBC, which paid $705 million for the American monopoly for Olympic coverage, doesn't want some dot-com startup with a camcorder undermining its monopoly. 

In order to maximize viewership, NBC designed its TV coverage to attract the largest possible audiences. That means hours of footage of athletes crying, aping the national anthem and hugging their parents - not to mention those sappy 15-minute segments that take a rosy look at, say, one athlete's Olympic Journey. Half the Olympic coverage isn't actual sport, but the emotion that surrounds it. All that fluff makes great TV, I guess. But it's wrong to prevent an entire nation from seeing half the events to make room for the peripheral drama surrounding the big-ticket sports. 

Ironically, NBC's ratings have been disappointing. 

Video of every single event should be posted on the Internet somewhere so people could, at their leisure, download and watch it. The easiest way to do that would be for the networks already granted monopolies to have those rights extended to the web. Hundreds of TV companies worldwide would post the sports that interested their countries most. Then independent sites could categorize and link to those downloadable videos for all to see. 

Most people would still watch TV - in fact I think they'd watch more of it because they'd feel more involved in the games - but could also see the sports of their choosing on the web. 

IOC: Get with it! It's the year 2000. The Olympics and the web were made for each other. Stop banning web coverage of the Olympics! 

Windows At War
The Navy plans to power its next-generation aircraft carrier with Windows 2000. The off-the-shelf software will power not only ship electronics and communications systems, but also weapons launchers and aircraft systems. The carrier, called the CVN 77, is scheduled for a 2008 deployment. Let's hope - for the sake of the world's coastal communities, that Microsoft gets all the bugs out by then. If Windows does to the Navy's aircraft carrier what it does to my PC, I want to be far inland. 

The Communist Way
Here in the United States, parents and pandering politicians are waging war against Hollywood and computer-game makers over marketing inappropriate content to kids. A push is on to limit ads during prime time TV shows. But in China, they don't mess around with criticizing companies for choosing the wrong time slot for commercials. They just shut companies down. Government officials in Shanghai recently closed more than 500 internet cafes in the city, mostly because too many kids are using them to play Quake and other games. They also recently shut down a pro-democracy web site, another site about human rights, and arrested a high school teacher who posted articles on the web that criticized the government. 

Follow-Up
Last week I reported that DotComFailures.com, whose motto is, "Kick 'em while they're down," itself had failed. I was had (along with the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Industry Standard and others). The whole thing was a publicity stunt to gain press and recognition for the site. Ryan Nitz, owner of the site, told me that the stunt had "worked beautifully."

Reader Web Site of the Week
Goofball.com is a humor site run by some former colleagues of mine, including my good friend and longtime reader Julie Chiesa. (caution: It's a pretty outrageous site.) Check it out!!

Mike's Wacky Web List
Hurry! Buy land on the moon - before it's all gone!

Here's a site for the super anal-retentive. 

This site is devoted to web banner ads, of all things. 

More Microsoft cartoons than you can shake a subpoena at!

This MUST be a hoax...

Mike's Number List
31 million - The number of Americans who say they don't use the Internet and never will, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. 

$16 million - Political contributions made by Microsoft during the past three years. 

#5 - Microsoft's ranking in the list of top soft-money contributors to political parties. 

Mike's Reading List
Cheney, Dicked - Slate

'Typosquatters' Turn Flubs Into Cash - ZDnet

NBC Plans Website to Sign Up Contestants For Mir - Space.com