CyberLaw Blog

Archive for the ‘FBI’ Category

So silly that I am also publishing the FBI seal……

FBI to Wikipedia: Remove our seal – CNN.com

By John D. Sutter, CNN
August 3, 2010 — Updated 1632 GMT (0032 HKT)

The FBI’s seal, shown here in a photograph, is the subject of a legal dispute between the bureau and Wikipedia.

* The FBI threatens Wikipedia with legal action over the use of its seal
* Wikipedia says it will not remove the FBI seal from an entry on the federal agency
* FBI claims website duplicated its seal without permission, in violation of federal law.

(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 isn’t backing down, however. The online encyclopedia — which is run by a nonprofit group and is edited by the public — sent a chiding letter to the FBI, explaining why, in its view, the FBI is off its legal rocker.

‘In short, then, 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,’ the Wikimedia Foundation’s general counsel, Mike Godwin, wrote in a letter to the FBI, which was posted online by the New York Times.

‘We are in contact with outside counsel in this matter, and we are prepared to argue our view in court.’

The whimsically written letter from Wikipedia says the FBI’s reading of relevant law is both ‘idiosyncratic’ and ‘more importantly, incorrect.’ It also notes that the FBI’s seal appears on other websites, including in an online entry from Encyclopedia Britannica.

In a letter dated July 22, and also posted online by the Times, the FBI told Wikipedia it must remove the bureau’s seal because the FBI had not approved use of the image.

‘The FBI has not authorized use of the FBI seal on Wikipedia,’ the letter says. ‘The inclusion of a high quality graphic of the FBI seal on Wikipedia is particularly problematic, because it facilitates both deliberate and unwitting’ copying and reprinting of the seal’s image.

The FBI’s deputy general counsel, David Larson, cities a particular law that says duplicating an official ‘insignia’ is illegal without permission.

But Wikipedia strikes back on that point, saying the FBI redacted the most important part of that U.S. code, which defines an insignia as ‘any badge, identification card, or other insignia.’

‘Badges and identification cards are physical manifestations that may be used by a possessor to invoke the authority of the federal government. An encyclopedia article is not,’ Wikipedia’s letter says. ‘The use of the image on Wikipedia is not for the purpose of deception or falsely to represent anyone as an agent of the federal government.’

The Wikipedia letter also adds:

‘Even if it could be proved that someone, somewhere, found a way to use a Wikipedia article illustration to facilitate a fraudulent representation, that would not render the illustration itself unlawful under the statute.’

It’s unclear if this tussle — which has already made its way into a Wikipedia entry on the FBI’s seal — will be taken to court. For now, the tech press is weighing in, often with amazement.

On the blog BoingBoing, Rob Beschizza writes that this is a no-win situation for the FBI.

‘The part that’s hard to understand is why the FBI would seek to abuse the law in such petulant fashion,’ he writes, ‘knowing that it will be subject to public ridicule for its actions.’

The magazine Vanity Fair posted the FBI’s seal on its website in a symbol of jest. 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.

Cindy Cohn, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the New York Times, which first reported this story, that she found the whole ordeal to be ’silly’ and ‘troubling.’

Gerard Damiano’s 4,800-Page FBI File Unearthed: “A 4,800-page FBI file on ‘Deep Throat’ director Gerard Damiano released to the Associated Press following a Freedom of Information Act request shows the lengths agents nationwide went in an attempt to prevent a shift toward the acceptance of erotic entertainment.”

(Via XBIZ.com | News & Articles.)

Jump in FBI child porn cases leads to lab backlog – Yahoo! News

Fri Jan 23, 2009

WASHINGTON – The FBI’s stepped-up effort to fight Internet child pornography has led to an evidence backlog in the bureau’s computer labs, auditors said Friday.

The Justice Department’s inspector general said the number of such cases handled by the FBI rose more than 20-fold between the 1996 and 2007 budget years. As a result, the heavy volume meant it took an average of about two months to examine such evidence in 2007 — and even as long as nine months.

The FBI, which has built a new lab in Maryland to handle the increased demand, agreed with the inspector general’s recommendations to create deadlines to reduce the backlog.

In a written response to the report, the FBI’s executive assistant director, Stephen Tidwell, said the bureau should try to hire more staff to handle the growing number of people needed to process digital evidence, not just in child exploitation cases but in other types of criminal investigations.

The FBI also plans to work with federal prosecutors to find ways to negotiate plea deals earlier in child pornography cases, to reduce the demand on lab workers.

At the time the audit was conducted, there were 353 requests for processing digital evidence in cyber crimes against children cases.

See the FBI Report: http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/FBI/a0908/final.pdf

Transcript: FBI director on surveillance of ‘illegal’ Internet activity:

When the FBI suggested that it should be able to perform wide-scale Internet monitoring to detect ‘illegal activity’ on Wednesday, the bureau raised more questions than it answered.

To help clear things up, we’re providing the transcript of FBI Director Robert Mueller’s exchange at a House of Representatives …

(Via The Iconoclast.)

FBI, politicos renew push for ISP data retention laws: FBI director Robert Mueller calls for new federal data retention laws forcing Internet companies to keep records of what their customers are doing, but without providing details. Several politicians endorsed the idea during a hearing on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON–The FBI and multiple members of Congress said …

(Via The Iconoclast.)

FBI’s Net surveillance proposal raises privacy, legal concerns: The FBI director and a Republican congressman sketched out a far-reaching plan this week for warrantless surveillance of the Internet.

During a House of Representatives Judiciary Committee hearing, the FBI’s Robert Mueller and Rep. Darrell Issa of California talked about what amounts to a two-step approach. Step 1 involves …

(Via The Iconoclast.)