Perhaps they should own the word “snow”

Stephen Colbert fights to even vaguely mention that sporting event that’s going on at the moment. You know, the:

It’s ridiculous what governments let the IOC get away with – and the public dollars they hand over to help it. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the words above are somehow, against all reason and precedent, trademarked by the time of the next one. Where’s the balance? The IOC stomps in, with all its vast reserves of cash, gets the host city to pay for everything, pass legislation enabling it to sell off anything even vaguely related to this supposedly special public event they privately own and have been rorting ever since they won the lottery and found themselves on the committee – and everyone else is supposed to just sit back and enjoy the feats of their athletes on whose backs the whole rotten edifice is constructed whilst complacently ignoring just how much they’ve been had.

I fully agree there should be an international sporting competition run for the aims of sportsmanship, peace and international co-operation the Olympics was founded to – and disingenuously claims it still does – further.

But it should have nothing to do with those profiteering crooks in the IOC.

UPDATE:

The following link via Darryl Mason – check out this obscenity:

Moves to safeguard company trademarks and stamp out ambush marketing, to preserve the monopoly of official advertisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) logo, are raising concerns among civil liberty groups.

Police will have powers to enter private homes and seize posters, and will be able to stop people carrying non-sponsor items to sporting events.

“I think there will be lots of people doing things completely innocently who are going to be caught by this, and some people will be prosecuted, while others will be so angry about it that they will start complaining about civil liberties issues,” Chadwick said.

“I think what it will potentially do is to prompt a debate about the commercial nature of the Games. Do big sponsors have too much influence over the Games?”

Gangsters, spivs, crooks. How much more can they get away with?