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FBI to Wikipedia: Take down our seal (or else)
That's right, the FBI has sent a letter to Wikipedia's San Francisco office demanding that they remove the Bureau's official seal from the site. Their reasoning? They say that it's because "unauthorized reproduction of the FBI Seal is prohibited by US law." The letter also went on to say that anyone caught in violation of this law is subject to fines and/or imprisonment. So, apparently all of the movies, television shows, comic books, and encyclopedias that have ever used the seal -- without directly asking permission first -- are in complete violation of federal law, right?
Wrong, says Wikipedia/Wikimedia's lawyer, Mike Godwin (yes, that one). Godwin was quick to respond with his own letter, which declared to the FBI that he and his clients are "compelled as a matter of law and principle to deny your demand for removal of the FBI Seal from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons..." Then, presumably wielding his pen with mighty ferocity, he added that "[we] are prepared to argue our view in court."
Godwin's stance is that the FBI omitted key wording in its letter to Wikipedia when citing the law in question, which changed its very meaning. He stated that the law was originally intended "to protect the public against the use of a recognizable assertion of authority with intent to deceive." He then went on to say that the seal found on Wikipedia "is in no way evidence of any 'intent to deceive,' nor is it an 'assertion of authority,' recognizable or otherwise."
I'm no lawyer, but this feels a lot like somebody woke up last week and realized that there was this thing called "the Internet," and he didn't like the fact that his agency's official seal could be found in places other than its own website (which looks like it hasn't changed since 1992). If that isn't the case, then this may be the first case of word-profiling, which could be the beginning of the end for anything with the wiki prefix.
[via BBC News]
Comments
10
Subscribe to commentsrichard.gaileyAug 4th 2010 8:14AM
Wow. Talk about bigger fish to fry.
You'd think the FBI would have slightly more important things to do than worry about a web site showing their emblem. I mean really, what's the big fucking deal?
This world is going copyright/ intellectual property rights crazy and I have a bad feeling it's going to get a lot worse until people stop giving a shit, because they realise it was pointless in the first place to be worrying about it.
It's not like Wikipedia have any grand designs on muscling in on the FBI and creating their own organisation, so why do they care?
I'm guessing it's just a power trip
/rant
Quad5NyAug 4th 2010 8:17AM
Eh, someone at the FBI woke up cranky and decided to bully Wikipedia. Nothing more to it.
Gardiner WestboundAug 4th 2010 8:43AM
Sounds like civil servants with way too much time on their hands.
ChrisSskAug 4th 2010 9:10AM
Some guy was half asleep during a briefing and when he was told to deal with Wikileaks he heard Wikipedia
SugarDaddyAug 4th 2010 9:12AM
Good for wikipedia for standing up to the bullies at the FBI. It's like, what? No more cold war and they need to bully a great democratic organization like wikipedia? The FBI should work on improving their image rather than bullying around the little guy on the internet and trying to collect our emails.
John BigbooteAug 4th 2010 9:26AM
Quote from the press release:
"Godwin stated that he would expect such behavior from the Nazis, but not in a free society."
JonnyAug 4th 2010 11:49AM
It always strikes me as odd that out of all the trillions of dollars the us government spends on just about everything, all of their websites are always so out of date and difficult to use. The individual states are even worse. I've made better websites back in high school in my html class. No joke intended. Let's spend a little of those tax payer dollars making it easier for the tax payer to ummm, pay taxes.
As for the seal being on wikipedia, the FBI would lose the case, plain and simple.
isotrexAug 4th 2010 8:38PM
I'd say they FBI is trying to abuse their authority here. I mean come on. It's just a seal. You might as well remove all seals, logos, heck even all graphics and images.... and we'll end up like the '80s with the internet full of text and ascii art. hahaha.
NitrammnAug 5th 2010 12:26AM
After a clever google image search for "FBI seal", I revealed a startling number of websites committing the very same crime! Quick, someone, turn off the internet!
Seriously, though. What an absolute waste of time..
ZargggAug 5th 2010 4:22AM
I only skimmed the letter. Did Godwin compare anyone to Hitler in it?