The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) demanded that Wikipedia remove the bureau’s seal from its encyclopedia entry, enticing the site’s lawyer to shoot back with a snarky missive meant to school the FBI on both the letter and spirit of the law.
The New York Times posted PDF documents of the FBI’s takedown request [PDF] and Wikipedia General Counsel Mike Godwin’s bold and catty reply [PDF].
The FBI said the Wikimedia Foundation is breaking the law by showing the bureau’s seal in the FBI entry on its website, and that the seal is primarily intended as a means of identification for FBI representatives. Godwin countered by accusing the FBI’s Deputy General Counsel David C. Larson of selectively omitting words from the supposedly applicable law.
Specifically, he said that the letter of the law applies only to things similar to badges, and the spirit of the law is simply to prevent people from posing as government authorities — something Wikipedia is clearly not doing. He also implied that the FBI is trying to revise the law because of its hawkish concern that people will rip the image from the site and use it for nefarious purposes.
He assured Larson that the Wikimedia Foundation is prepared to go to court to defend its use of the seal if that’s what it takes.
Godwin’s letter is humorous for its directness, but it’s also funny for being passive-aggressive. For example, he says:
“Entertainingly, in support for your argument, you included a version of 701 in which you removed the very phrases that subject the statute to ejusdem generis analysis. 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 of Section 701 that you forwarded to us.”
Godwin is already famous as the creator of Godwin’s Law, which states, “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1,” so this is definitely in-character for him.
Do you think Wikipedia is right to deny the FBI’s request?
Reviews: Wikipedia
More About: badge, FBI, law, lawyer, legal, michael godwin, seal, takedown, wiki, wikimedia foundation, wikipedia
For more Social Media coverage:
- Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
- Become a Fan on Facebook
- Subscribe to the Social Media channel
- Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad