• BoingBoing , Monday, April 16, 2012 9:20 AM

Policing and censorship on behalf of the London games' sponsors is here. "Brand police" will have the power to force publications to take down signs advertising "watch the games on our TV," to sticker over the brand-names of products at games venues where those products were made by companies other than the games' sponsors, to send takedown notices to YouTube and Facebook if attendees at the games post their personal images for their friends to see. These rules are not merely civil laws, but criminal ones, so violating the sanctity of an Olympic sponsor could invite prison time.

Non-sponsors can be collared for using images or wording that might suggest too close a link with the games. Expressions likely to be considered a breach of the rules would include any two of the following list: "Games, Two Thousand and Twelve, 2012, Twenty-Twelve." The London Olympic bid insisted that these restrictions were necessary to get the sponsors.

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