FBI gets a lesson from Wikipedia

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org>
> Date: August 3, 2010 6:01:54 AM MDT
> To: Undisclosed-recipients: <>;
> Cc: Farber Dave <dave () farber net>
> Subject: FBI gets a lesson from Wikipedia

> August 2, 2010
> F.B.I., Challenging Use of Seal, Gets Back a Primer on the Law
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/us/03fbi.html?hpw=&pagewanted=print
>
> By JOHN SCHWARTZ
>
> The Federal Bureau of Investigation has taken on everyone from Al Capone to John Dillinger to the Unabomber. Its 
> latest adversary: Wikipedia.
>
> The bureau wrote a letter in July to the Wikimedia Foundation, the parent organization of Wikipedia, demanding that 
> it take down an image of the F.B.I. seal accompanying an article on the bureau, and threatened litigation: “Failure 
> to comply may result in further legal action. We appreciate your timely attention to this matter.”
>
> The problem, those at Wikipedia say, is that the law cited in the F.B.I.’s letter is largely about keeping people 
> from flashing fake badges or profiting from the use of the seal, and not about posting images on noncommercial Web 
> sites. Many sites, including the online version of the Encyclopedia Britannica, display the seal.
>
> Other organizations might simply back down. But Wikipedia sent back a politely feisty response, stating that the 
> bureau’s lawyers had misquoted the law. “While we appreciate your desire to revise the statute to reflect your 
> expansive vision of it, the fact is that we must work with the actual language of the statute, not the aspirational 
> version” that the F.B.I. had provided.
>
> Michael Godwin, the general counsel of the Wikimedia Foundation, wrote, “we are prepared to argue our view in court.” 
> He signed off, “with all appropriate respect.”
>
> An F.B.I. spokesman, William Carter, said that such letters go out “from time to time” from the office of general 
> counsel.
>
> “You can’t use the F.B.I. seal, by law, unless you have the permission of the F.B.I. director,” he said.
>
> Cindy Cohn, the legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called the dust-up both “silly” and 
> “troubling”; Wikipedia has a First Amendment right to display the seal, she said.
>
> “Really,” she added, “I have to believe the F.B.I. has better things to do than this.”



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