The Ravelympics "denigrate" Olympians everywhere.

Have you seen this yet?  This here (must be logged onto to see) is the letter sent to Ravelry by the US Olympic Committee telling them that they may be infringing on copyrights to the word "Olympic" by naming the friendly competition that is the Ravelympics, the Ravelympics.  A few of the things that bother me the most about this letter are that it seems they are mostly worried that they some how might not get a cut of some mysterious money that must come from this event.  I'm fairly certain that the Original Olympics, which started in Greece in 770BC, weren't in the spirit of monetary gain, but moreso the spirit of friendly competition.  No less were they about monetary gain when they started back up again in 1896. (info found here)
It also bothers me that their decision to send this letter is full of things like this:

  The Olympic Games represent ideals that go beyond sport to encompass culture and education, tolerance and respect, world peace and harmony.

And this:

We believe using the name “Ravelympics” for a competition that involves an afghan marathon, scarf hockey and sweater triathlon, among others, tends to denigrate the true nature of the Olympic Games.  In a sense, it is disrespectful to our country’s finest athletes and fails to recognize or appreciate their hard work. 

 Which, really?  How do the Ravelympics not represent those ideals too?  Holding this event only promotes this, and celebrates the Olympics, and the Olympians.  How is over 7300 people who are actively involved in the Ravelympics group, and the remaining approximately 1 992 600 people who can't help but notice them, who are watching the games, supporting the athletes, being directly influenced by all the logo and product placement of the sponsors, who will undoubtedly then go out buy a new pair of Nikes or a Coke or whatever, be disrespectful or denigrating?  Oh wait, by that logic, the Ravelympics are a fabulous way to support the Olympics, and we can't have that, can we?  Especially when we can't cash in some how.


.... When will the "Big Wigs" of the world ever see the light? The "99%" make their world possible, and pissing enough of them off will negatively effect them.  But that's another rant, for another time, and likely another blog... not sure how I could relate that to Fibre Arts ;D

~Kara

UPDATE:
There was an apology issued today, regarding the wording and disparaging remarks towards the knitting community.  You can find it here.  And I accept the apology.  Fully and completely, even though I know people are still mad, I'm not.  I think tho, this just goes to show that the Internet has changed the game, in regards to legal matters.  This and the big hullaballoo over at The Oatmeal...  It also shows, that when united, people of a common ilk can make enough noise to have things changed, or at least apologised for.