The Act aims to prevent entities from free riding on Rugby World Cup 2011 without having paid the right to associate with the event. This does not mean that no reference can be made to the tournament. There are number of exemptions, such as for the purposes of reporting news and information about Rugby World Cup 2011 (set out in full at the list provided below).

We are working with the Ministry of Economic Development on a practical guide to the application of the Major Events Management Act which we hope will clear up any misconceptions such as those in Donna’s original post. This will be on the MED website and on rugbyworldcup.com in the next few weeks.

In order to try and get some form of clarification about it we called the RVA. And to be honest, they themselves don’t know exactly how to interpret this law and trying to get some answers from the IRB is a very slow process (if not an impossible one). So to the best of our understanding, what stands behind this law is to prevent businesses from advertising what they are not – for example saying you are the supplier of rooms for the RWC, when in fact you are not. Personally I don’t know anyone who will be foolish enough to make statements they can’t stand behind but I give the IRB the benefit of the doubt they have their reasoning (taking into account I might be naive).

Though the issue of the Major Events Management Act is highly important, I think we are neglecting an important point in the original post, a point which Tourism providers need to think and talk about. This major event is a wonderful opportunity for the Tourism industry and New Zealand to gain much more than just profits. The average person knows the rules of the game – when demand is high prices go up. If you are in this industry you have this fluctuation every year moving from peak to off peak season. The RWC should not be any different but is also no reason to be greedy.

Some whippersnapper lawyer wrote asking (threatening) us to remove a photo of an All Black on the site, even though there was no mention of the RWC on there, just a coming soon message…

They should have bought the domain before they announced the name of the company running the RWC!

My opinion is that they are being too heavy handed. The Bus & Coach Group/Society bought out some guidlines about 6 months ago – I’ll try and find the link.

Bye the way you can speak about Rugby World Cup in a blog but you cannot market your business as providing some kind of service for RWC unless you are accredited in some way.

IMG are the organisation policing this and who can probably best speak on it.

…I’d like to be more specific and be able to tell you what this is …tell you the name of the sport and game, …tell you the year connected to [this sporting event], …and tell you where the games are going to be played. I’d like to be able to direct you to the ‘Official’ website of [this sporting event], (but again, sorry, that too is also a definite no-no!!)

I CAN offer you information about surrounding regions, (where to stay & what to do, since [this sporting event] will be attracting many overseas visitors who are already wanting information about the host country), but I can NOT tell you about my product in relation to [this sporting event], not even if I place a disclaimer in my reference which says; “I am not officially connected to [this sporting event]”!!

In fact, no institution, or business, unless “authorised” …(but here, one cannot ‘gain’ authorisation!), have the rights to be making any connection to [this event], AT ALL.

Each and every citizen needs to be aware of this Rights Protection Law surrounding [this major sporting event].

This Law even goes as far as prohibiting a school from holding a colouring-in competition that refers to [this sporting event], or the players, or the teams involved.

It is understandable to have strict laws to protect Official Sponsors of [this event] from ‘unauthorised competition’ since these Sponsors have poured mega-bucks into advertising etc., however, many other businesses are already advertising [this event] on a large scale. Some have been doing so since September last year, displaying countdown-clocks, advertising ‘packages’, forming ‘Associations’, and ‘Stables of Activities’ connected to [this sporting event]. Is this Law being upheld?, Is this Law being adequately policed by the ‘official’ Rights Protection Organisation handling the law to [this sporting event]?
Given that this Rights Protection Law states; “$150,000 fine and 5 years jail if found in-breach of ANY unauthorised referencing”, how does this now make you feel?

As citizens and small businesses of the host country, who wish to get behind [this sporting event], and promote it in a positive way, is the extreme measure of this Protection Law entirely fair?

And, more to the point, did YOU KNOW about this Law?

This post was mentioned on Twitter by michelle_ackers: RT @nztourismblog: New blog post: RWC2011 Hotel Pricing: Australia v New Zealand http://bit.ly/9C6FUO #rugby #RWC2011…