The emblem for the 2008 Beijing Olympics has been mocked up and
changed to public toilet signs by mischievous Internet users,
Beijing-based Legal Evening reports.
Mischievous internet users
have mocked up and changed the emblem for the 2008 Beijing Olympics
to public toilet signs.
The prank was found by accident on Wednesday when a reporter was
looking at a famous domestic online community. The poster was only
a copy, it said. The original Internet address was unavailable.
In the poster, the Beijing Olympic emblem, "Chinese Seal,
Dancing Beijing" was changed into two versions for male and female
public restrooms respectively.
The entangled five rings, the symbol of the Olympics, was erased
from the bottom in both of the pranked emblems. In their place were
the Chinese characters for the two genders.
The color of the sign for male toilet was gray, not red like the
original, while the Chinese calligraphy character for "Jing" in
Beijing in the prototype was redesigned as a female toilet sign
looking like a girl dressed in a skirt.
Reports said the emblems have been widespread on the Internet.
Internet users can easily find them on famous search engines such
as Google and Baidu.
The mischief triggered heated online disputes. Some complain
it's unacceptable to see these originally beautiful emblems
transforemd into such lousy signs. Supporters said the parodies
amuse them and appear without any vicious intentions.
In an interview with the reporter, the director of the online
community said they won't remove the poster from their website
since it didn't violate laws.
An official with the Beijing Olympic organizer, BOCOG, condemned
the prank, warning its spread online may bring negative influences
on the Beijing Games.
BOCOG published a regulation in 2003 on the protection of
intellectual property rights relating to the 2008 Games' emblem. It
prohibited actions from setting apart, distorting or juggling the
emblem by any organization and individual in any case. Making the
emblem part of other incorporated logos is also banned.
However, Fang Yu, a lawyer with Beijing Dadi Law Office, said
the juggle did not violate the regulation because it only spread
online without any attempt for commercial purposes.
Fang also claimed the BOCOG regulation doesn't bear any legal
force.
In a similar online mischief recently, the Beijing Olympic
mascots, the five Fuwas, did not escape from the mean-spirited zeal
of Internet users either. The heads of the five mascots kids were
replaced with famous Chinese comedians, including Zhao Benshan and
Ge You.
BOCOG unveiled the emblem for the Beijing Olympics on August 3,
2003. The organization says on its website that through inspiration
from traditional Chinese calligraphy art, the character "Jing" from
the city's name is developed into the form of a dancing human
being, reflecting the ideal of a "New Olympics." The words "Beijing
2008" also resemble vivid shapes of Chinese characters in
handwriting, voicing in concise strokes the countless feelings
Chinese people possess towards the Olympics.
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(CRI January 12, 2007)
