[Infowarrior] - Olympic Ooops!

[Richard Forno]

(The 'kicker' is in the final paragraph of the extract below.  Heh.  -- 
rf)

Cartoon smut law to make life sucky for Olympic organisers
Internet + iffy logo = Ha ha!

By John Ozimek

Posted in Law, 29th November 2009 10:02 GMT

Government zeal in pursuing anyone suspected of harbouring paedophilic  
tendencies may shortly rebound – with unintended consequences for the  
2012 Olympic logo (http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/images/2007/06/04/2012_logo_white_385x450.jpg 
).

Earlier this month, the Coroners & Justice Bill 2009 (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2009/ukpga_20090025_en_5#pt2-ch2-pb1-l1g62 
) received the Royal Assent. This Act was another of those portmanteau  
pieces of legislation for which the current government is famous,  
mixing up new regulations on the holding of inquests, driving  
offences, provocation in murder cases and, crucially, a new law making  
it a criminal offence to be found in possession of an indecent cartoon  
image of a child.

The horror facing the unpopular Olympics logo is that this is a strict  
liability offence. If an image is indecent, or held to be so by a  
jury, it is no good the Olympic Committee claiming that it was not  
intended as such.

Regular readers will be aware of the controversy that surrounded the  
current logo since the day it was launched. Critics were not impressed  
by the £400,000 that had allegedly been shelled out (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/olympics_2012/6718243.stm 
) to creative consultancy Wolff Olins to come up with the design.  
However, it was the logo’s perceived suggestiveness - with many  
sniggering that it appeared to show Lisa Simpson performing an act of  
fellatio - that excited internet controversy.

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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/29/olympic_logo_lisa_simpson/