ORGANISERS of the London Olympics are vowing to wage a battle against online sharing of images from the Games.

In a strongly worded warning to all ticket-holders, the organisers appear to ban all social sharing of images online. ''Images, video and sound recordings of the Games taken by a ticket-holder cannot be used for any purpose other than for private and domestic purposes and a ticket-holder may not license, broadcast or publish video and/or sound recordings, including on social networking websites and the internet more generally.''

The London Olympics may be a flickr-free zone. Credit:Reuters

The news has sparked a storm of protest online, especially by photographers, and comes after reports that some British photographers have been warned off by security staff for photographing the Olympic village from public places.

While it's not clear how people could be prevented from sharing video and photographs taken with devices such as smartphones, one measure reported is banning people from using smartphones in Wi-Fi hot spots at Games venues to prevent them posting images online.