What Will Google Announce Next Week?
Facebook Forced To Let You Vote On Privacy Changes
FBI Tells Wikipedia to Remove Its Seal, Wikipedia Says It Would Rather Not
Wikileaks may have garnered a lot of attention from national security departments recently, but the FBI is apparently more concerned with another, more visible Wiki. In a July 22nd letter (PDF) addressed to Wikipedia, the Bureau threatened the site with legal action unless it removes the FBI seal from its page. FBI deputy general counsel David Larson justified the request by citing a specific U.S. law that prohibits the duplication of any official "insignia" without due permission. As Larson claims, "The inclusion of a high quality graphic of the FBI seal on Wikipedia is particularly problematic, because it facilitates both deliberate and unwitting" reproduction of the insignia. In response, the Wikimedia Foundation's general counsel Mike Godwin called the FBI's interpretation of the insignia law "idiosyncratic" and "more importantly, incorrect." According to Wikipedia, the FBI ignored the most salient part of the U.S. code, which defines an insignia as "any badge, identification card, or other insignia."
"Badges and identification cards are physical manifestations that may be used by a possessor to invoke the authority of the federal government. An encyclopedia article is not," Godwin's letter reads (PDF). "The use of the image on Wikipedia is not for the purpose of deception or falsely to represent anyone as an agent of the federal government." Wikipedia went on to say that it's prepared to battle in court, should the FBI make good on its threat.
Godwin also points out that Wikipedia isn't the only place where you can find the FBI's vaunted seal, as it's also reproduced on the Bureau's online entry on Encyclopedia Britannica. And, now that the FBI has drawn more media attention to its insignia, its seal has already been printed across various news outlets -- all of whom, by the FBI's reasoning, are now evildoers. No one, then, seems to be taking the FBI very seriously, and nor should they. It's obvious that no reasonable human being would ever attempt to deceive the FBI with a Wikipedia print-out. It's still unclear what the FBI's intention was, but we're pretty sure it wasn't aiming for the kind of public embarrassment it's suffered thus far. [From: New York Times, via: CNN and TechDirt]
Featured on Switched:
40 Years Later 'Napalm Girl' Tells Her Story
Disney World Scammers Scored Four Years of Free Vacations
PHOTOS: Charlize Theron's Short And Shoulder-Baring Style
Stranger's Kiss Keeps 16-Year-Old From Committing Suicide
Rookie Cop Reportedly Berated, Called 'A Rat' For Arresting Off-Duty Officer
Disturbing Video Allegedly Shows Montreal Torso Suspect Murdering Victim
Walmart Ending Membership in Conservative Group
How I Went Bankrupt at 23
Lost Dr. Seuss Cartoons Show Another Side Of The Author
Can a New Guy Save Best Buy?
Woman Claims Kangaroo Stalked Her for 2 Days, Then Attacked
Kansas Police Search For 12-Year-Old Girl Who Disappeared With Canadian She Met Online
Pete Cosey Dead: Chicago Guitar Great and Miles Davis Collaborator Dies at 68
Facebook, Week Two: Fortunes Made and Fortunes Lost (Mostly Lost)
Chain Food Showdown: The Best & Worst Buffalo Wings
Michael Grant Dead: Crescent Shield Singer Dies Aged 39
George Zimmerman's Bond Revoked
Witherspoon Bigamy Case Heats Up
Student Ate Roommate's Brain And Heart, Cops Say
New Discovery Sheds Light On Amelia Earhart Mystery
Heidi Klum's Sexiest (And Scariest) Outfits
Is Kate Walsh Leaving 'Private Practice' Next Season?
Porn Actor Mailed Murder Victim's Body Parts To Canada's Top Political Parties: Cops
Space Agency Predicts Date Of World-Ending Galactic Smash-Up
See Kim Without Her Wig On 'Don't Be Tardy For The Wedding'
LOOK: Photos Of Military Moms Breastfeeding In Uniform Cause Controversy
PHOTOS: This Month's Biggest Photoshop Fails
Zhang Ziyi Slams Prostitution Allegations
Luka Magnotta: 'I'll Be Back -- And This Time The Victims Won't Be Animals'
Zombie Apocalypse: Federal Government Denies Existence Of Flesh-Eating Monsters
Why You Should Never Wear One Of These To A Job Interview (And Other Tips)
New Video Shows Face-Eating Attack Lasted 18 Minutes
Comments
70
Subscribe to commentsSamAug 5th 2010 1:04PM
The Seal thing is much a-do about nothing. The FBI should instead be implementing a plan to terminate or capture and imprison Wikileaks involved staff for posting highly sensitive leaked documents and placing the lives of Americans and our Allies in danger. Wikileaks is just as much an enemy of America as any entity we are presently at odds with.
utfanAug 5th 2010 1:16PM
OK for all you morons that can't under stand. First go to any web site that has been seized by the FBI and there it is high def full screen. The crooks don't play by the rules, if they want a copy they will find it. The more info we have the harder it is to scam someone.
kingfool1Aug 5th 2010 1:55PM
One minor point if the FBI want to keep their seal secret, how is the public going to be able the recognize the "official" seal when they see it, versus a counterfeit.
donut999Aug 5th 2010 2:21PM
don't those guys have something else to be worried about? is it on their badges? bet they would be happy to show it you when they arrest you
prheltAug 5th 2010 4:01PM
Put a watermark over it that say facsimle. Problem solved issues averted.
PamelaAug 5th 2010 2:48PM
The government seems to "pick and choose" and much of the time it is a waste of resources. How about if the FBI goes after really important issues.
JAFlemingAug 5th 2010 5:36PM
More evidence the government intends to rule every part of our lives and will spend borrowed operating capital to expose, prosicute, and punish these criminals at Wikipedia.
Wiki is right to fight for its right to display a government symbol in reference to encyclopedic information (for heaven sake)! Actions like this make me angry and fearful of what our government has become. Who is the FBI serving and protecting?
noreenarshadAug 5th 2010 11:25PM
Okay, what I menat was that Lauri's comment was too stupid to be considered actually serious. Which just pisses me off. Call me overtly serious, but she seems to purposely undermine my origanal comment, and it annoyed me how she seemed to pay no mind to the main idea, and making such as disgusting reference to FBI=God's prophet. I never said that! I made the similarity that Wikipedia should respect thier descision to not show it, as in both cases, if the subject matter offends the person or group, or if they just plain don't want it to be seen, they've got to respect that! And to ty, there are some sadly gullible people out there innocent or scared or moronic enough to get fooled so easily by a figure holding what's basically a pass allowing access to protected information or taking advantage over civilians. And if the image is all over google, whatever. That just validates the point that users can deal with it and they don't need to look all over wikipedia for teh FBI's seal if it's already all over Google images. :-P If it's not that big a deal to begin with, Wikipedia would just freaking take it down to appease them, as they if they know it's all over the web, it's not like it's particulararily neccasry or important that they need to show it on thier page.
Pks29733Aug 8th 2010 11:29AM
So the 'FBI' is going after 'Wikipedia', I wonder when they will be going after 'Switched' (I know it's from 'Wikipedia', but still it's on 'Switch's' site/article) for doing the same. Or as 'Switched' stated 'due permission'. Hopefuly 'Switched' got 'due permission' to place the FBI's seal on thier article!
BobAug 11th 2010 1:12PM
Obviously Wikipedia is only interested in its own promotion by doing this, not the common good. Let's see Wikipedia do something with a real national challenge and of real value, like the challenges faced by the FBI, not just something to attract more advertisers. It's a time of anything goes, but what should go is their attention-grabbing tactics.