The United States Olympic Committee says it and it alone can use the word “olympics” to describe an athletic competition, which miffs the organizers of the Robolympics. I filed a story about the copyright conflict between bot-builders and the USOC for Wired News here.
“The last time I checked, the USOC wasn’t hosting robot sumo events,” said Calkins. “Common sense dictates that no one would confuse a 6-pound hunk of steel and plastic with Picabo Street, nor would this dilute her image or in any way disrespect her accomplishments. “We won’t compete against them in the 50-yard dash, so I don’t see why they won’t help us to create an aptly named forum for competing in robotic line-following or robot firefighting,” he said.
