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FBI Instructs Wikipedia To Drop FBI Seal
eldavojohn writes "The FBI got in contact with Wikipedia's San Francisco office to inform them they were violating the law in regards to 'unauthorized production' of this seal. The FBI quoted the law as saying, 'Whoever possesses any insignia... or any colorable imitation thereof... shall be fined... or imprisoned... or both.' Wikipedia refused to take the image down and stated that the FBI was misquoting the law. The FBI claims that this production of this image is 'particularly problematic, because it facilitates both deliberate and unwitting violations of restrictions by Wikipedia users.' Wikipedia's lawyer, Mike Godwin (please omit certain jokes), contacted the FBI and asserted, 'We are compelled as a matter of law and principle to deny your demand for removal of the FBI Seal from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons,' adding that the firm was 'prepared to argue our view in court.' Wikipedia appears to be holding their ground; we shall see if the FBI comes to their senses or proceeds with litigation."
or does the seal kind of resemble Muhammad?
Mike Godwin (please omit certain jokes)
You Nazi, stop restricting my free speech.
You know, the Nazis had lawyers too. Not saying Wikipedia supports Nazism, but why is no one asking these questions?
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
"Whoever possesses any insignia... or any colorable imitation thereof... shall be fined... or imprisoned... or both"
Okay so I had to go and look this one up. Because there are so many ...'s that pretty much all of the information is missing. That sentence fracture they chose doesn't even mention any government insignia's, at first I thought ALL insignia's were outlawed.
Anyways, so here's the full deal.
Don't you know that the FBI has William Shatner as their lawyer? Those weren't omissions, they were just accurately quoting his speech!
Wow, it's even worse than the original.. it should say:
"Whoever ... possesses any ... insignia ... or any colorable imitation thereof ... shall be fined ... or imprisoned ... or both."
This is fun, you could say:
"... the head of any department or agency of the United States ... shall be ... imprisoned ... "
If Congress represented us,
Oh, since we're in Imaginationland, can I have a pony?
I think he was attacking the FBI copyright warning at the start of movies. Although I suspect that it is at the consent of the FBI. I wonder what started the FBI to go after Wikipedia though?
They probably got wikileaks confused with wikipedia. After all, all wikis are alike right?
If the FBI get a seal it's only fair if we all get ponies.
I had myself a nice chuckle at the very clear attempt at humor.
Then I nearly shit myself when I realized how possible this is.