The FBI has taken on everyone from Al Capone to John Dillinger to the Unabomber. Its latest adversary: Wikipedia.
The bureau wrote a letter last month to the Wikimedia Foundation, the parent organization of Wikipedia, demanding that it take down an image of the FBI 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 letter read.
The problem, those at Wikipedia say, is that the law cited in the FBI’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.
Wikipedia sent back a politely feisty response.
“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 FBI had provided, wrote Michael Godwin, the general counsel of the Wikimedia Foundation. “We are prepared to argue our view in court.”
An FBI spokesman, William Carter, said the FBI seal can’t be used without the permission of the FBI director.
Cindy Cohn, the legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called the dust-up both “silly” and “troubling,” adding: “Really, I have to believe the FBI has better things to do than this.”
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