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FBI wants seal removed from Wikipedia

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posted on Aug, 6 2010 @ 10:15 PM
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CNN News FBI to wikipedia




(CNN) -- The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has threatened Wikipedia with legal action if the online encyclopedia doesn't remove the FBI's seal from its site. The seal is featured in an encyclopedia entry about the FBI.


Wikipedia does stand up for itself and deserves an S and F!

Well it is an interesting article so I looked at it. Then decided to go deeper.



FBI at Wikipedia




The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency. The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime.[2] Its motto is "Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity", corresponding to the FBI initials.



oddly nothing on the web site about it....

The FBI has NO ground to stand on. I believe it is about a possible testing of the waters to nail wikileaks.

Not to shabby a try.

I give this one an epic fail... I see it... Do you?



posted on Aug, 6 2010 @ 10:41 PM
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The FBI is citing 18 USC 701:


Whoever manufactures, sells, or possesses any badge, identification card, or other insignia, of the design prescribed by the head of any department or agency of the United States for use by any officer or employee thereof, or any colorable imitation thereof, or photographs, prints, or in any other manner makes or executes any engraving, photograph, print, or impression in the likeness of any such badge, identification card, or other insignia, or any colorable imitation thereof, except as authorized under regulations made pursuant to law, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.

Wikimedia makes the points: "it's not an insignia or physical manifestation, plus Encyclopedia Britannica does it too."

In my opinion, Wikimedia is right in spirit of the law, but the letter of the law here is phrased very broadly, so the FBI has a point, too.



posted on Aug, 6 2010 @ 10:47 PM
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Enforcing this will do little or nothing to restore the forever tarnished public
image associated with the FBI seal, and anything related to it.

It has been forever stained with the blood of innocents and with such destructive corruption that it cannot ever be cleaned, controlled or sanitized.

Take your FBI seal and stick it.... Where ever you want.

The FBI seal is as worthless as the agency it represents.

In my opinion of course.



posted on Aug, 6 2010 @ 10:53 PM
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Fair use. If anything is fair use then dictionary entry is one.



posted on Aug, 6 2010 @ 11:05 PM
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So does this mean that they cannot allow the seal to be seen on TV when they arrive in vehicles, or in newspaper articles etc. Does this therefore also apply to the seal of the POTUS, or of any other department or agency?

Shish, what numpties!!



posted on Aug, 7 2010 @ 12:41 AM
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From the CNN article:

And, as the blog Geekosystem says, an editor on the site aggregator Reddit jokes that maybe the FBI got Wikipedia confused with WikiLeaks -- the site that's been causing a stir lately over leaked war documents.


That's exactly what I thought! Maybe that they figure WikiMedia means Wiki everything. Anyway, I found it funny.



posted on Aug, 7 2010 @ 01:29 AM
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Does the FBI have nothing better to do that harass websites, ... what is their reasoning behind this besides being bored douche-bags.

Hey FBI, didn't you get the memo ??

You WORK for us, ... well use your damn insignia anyway we see fit.

So put down your donuts and coffee, .. and go solve some real crimes.

..... and no, .... not just crimes committed and donut shops and strip clubs. pieces of trash.



posted on Aug, 7 2010 @ 01:41 AM
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During a quick google search of the "FBI seal" I came across no less than three websites selling this self-same seal. I also saw that AOL, Yahoo and a few other sites citing this story were also posting copies of the seal. Will the FBI go after those sites as well? Are we not allowed to know what the seal looks like so that when someone shows us an "FBI" badge, we can't tell if they are telling us the truth or not?



posted on Aug, 7 2010 @ 02:20 AM
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Another thing:

The FBI seal is Masonic in design, as with other logos of U.S. government agencies.



posted on Aug, 7 2010 @ 10:42 PM
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reply to post by ripcontrol
 


Leverage.

This is the motive behind the F.B.I.'s "attack" on Wikipedia's use of the emblem.

The F.B.I. wants a guarantee of complete control over the image of the agency.

Blackmail : Keep Your Friends Close, Keep Your Enemies Closer, The Threat of Subversion Through Fear

Paranoia runs rampant at the most prestigious Law Enforcement Agency.

J. Edgar Hoover started it and they carried it on after his death.

While I certainly understand it, to an extent, this is ridiculous.



posted on Aug, 7 2010 @ 10:52 PM
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Seems like harassment to me. And a way to let Wikipedia know they've got their eye on them.


Seriously though, having it online does pose some security risks, as opposed to having it in a book or on TV
It could be a real concern if someone were to want to forge identification or stationary. And who knows...maybe they've already had issues like this to deal with, and this is their solution.

At first, when I read this, I thought, well someone who wanted it could always find it on fbi.gov. But then when I looked, it seems they've shrunken the one on that site to an almost unusable, very low res and poor quality graphic.

(By the way there was another thread about this posted 3 days before this one...here.)



posted on Aug, 7 2010 @ 10:53 PM
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reply to post by soontide
 

Hmmm...my search must suck. Well I bet they're going to get on those websites too.



posted on Aug, 7 2010 @ 11:08 PM
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The FBI is doing this to get people interested in the FBI wikipedia page. They know what they are doing is absurd but that it will get publicity for just that.




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