Mexican Government Officials Pirated Olympic Games

The Olympic Games are highly commercialized, so protecting trademarks and copyrights are some of the most important issues. For example, the organizers of the Games have taken action against Mexican government officials who recorded an event and posted the video on social media.

It is not a secret that there are billions of dollars at stake at the Olympics, and it is quite understandable that corporations would go all out to protect their interests. A few days ago, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sent takedown requests to Twitter to prevent Periscope users from streaming Olympic events. However, the organizers targeted not only ordinary users: apparently, the Rio Organizing Committee has withdrawn press credentials from Mexico’s National Commission of Physical Culture and Sports because of a copyright dispute. The Committee claimed that the Mexican officials violated its licensing conditions by filming a gymnast on a cellphone. The video was later posted to social media, despite the fact that Mexico’s National Commission of Physical Culture and Sports had no rights to broadcast Olympic content. As a result, the representatives of the Mexican government had their press credentials taken away.

 The Committee reiterated that the use of Olympic materials turned into animated graphic and short video formats are forbidden. Perhaps, it just felt that it needed to set an example, but taking away the credentials of the Mexican officials will be felt back home in Mexico. The National Commission of Physical Culture and Sports is the arm of the Mexican government charged with promoting physical education and sport, which also used to be the conduit between the Olympic Games and the Mexicans. Now it looks like the Rio Organizing Committee punished the whole country for the sharing of a single video. 

In the meantime, thousands of people are sharing recorded events at will on file-sharing services like The Pirate Bay. Moreover, the real action is taking place on the streaming sites: aside from web-browser based services, users of Kodi all over the world use specials plugins to have continuous access to live Olympic events (often in HD quality).