Sick of Rowling's transphobia Quidditch leagues look to rename the sport

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Originally published at: Sick of Rowling's transphobia Quidditch leagues look to rename the sport | Boing Boing

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Is “sky golf” taken?

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Broom Hockey?

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AKA curling.

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Well, Broomball is a thing. And quite like hockey with brooms.

They are currently on semester break, but Broomball season will soon be starting at Michigan Tech, and they provide webcams to view it.
https://broomball.mtu.edu/info/webcams

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We’re not going to talk about everyone running around with a small broom between their legs? :shushing_face:

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Seriously, I’m a next level Harry Potter nerd … and I always thought real life Quidditch was one of the stupidest things I ever heard of.

Sure, ditch the association with Rowling… by ditching the game!

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Did they also change all the rules of Quidditch so that it’s a good sport too?

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My Alma Mater, Emerson College, was one of the first US colleges to have a Quidditch team. Back in the 2000’s, management was forcing the college to have more sports. So we picked the sport. :wink:

There was always the weird dance around not running afoul of IP licensing, so I’d be happy to see the name change. That’s in addition to distancing further away from problematic author…

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So you are the kind of person who plays a made up sport but dont realise that she can stop you cold. She owns it al not just the name but every aspect the rules, the playing field and its all copyright

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While the official press release focuses on Rowling’s transphobia, I suspect “The issues surrounding…the Warner Brothers trademark” may in practice be even more important for the change.

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Aren’t all sports made up?

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And how is that going to stop anyone?

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You can’t “copyright” a sport. The rule-book, perhaps. You might be able to patent it as a “process.” You could certainly trademark the name.

Intellectual property laws are complicated, but copyright doesn’t mean “I wrote down an idea so I own everything associated with it.”

That being said, the larger/richer the establishment/corporation/individual, the more legal firepower they can bring to bear in the form of lawsuits that will overwhelm smaller players, even if the smaller player is in the right. IP law has always been about making the powerful more powerful, and always been couched in terms to make it seem like it protects the little people. It’s pretty much always been a lie.

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Well yes but most are not part of a book

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The Sport Which Must Not Be Named

How about BesomBall?

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So how are they gonna name it?
Wizardball?

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Dorkball.

Sorry, I’ll see myself out…

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Here’s where I learned about this (as usual it’s a thread). :slight_smile:

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Good on them. IMO art transcends the artist when people create their own new things with the parts they like and reject the rest.

I was too old to get into HP and a lot of it just didn’t reach me the way it did others, but I respect their efforts to keep the parts they found valuable from it and discard the rest. May their weird sport continue to evolve. People surely need some inclusive places to get exercise.

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