Phroziac wrote:
Zomgwtfbbq! Wikimedia on Wheels!
On 9/14/05, Alphax alphasigmax@gmail.com wrote:
Fastfission wrote:
Arf arf! No, no that kind of seal...
There are a number of U.S. federal agencies which have seals the usages of which are restricted by federal law. For example, about the seal of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA):
Use of the Central Intelligence Agency Seal Federal law prohibits use of the words Central Intelligence Agency, the initials CIA, the seal of the Central Intelligence Agency, or any colorable imitation of such words, initials, or seal in connection with any merchandise, impersonation, solicitation, or commercial activity in a manner reasonably calculated to convey the impression that such use is approved, endorsed, or authorized by the Central Intelligence Agency. http://www.cia.gov/cia/notices.html#seal
Now I don't know what it's *copyright* status is -- is it a work of the federal government and thus in the public domain, or is it considered an exception? -- but it seems clear to me, anyway, that it is not "free" in the sense required to be listed on Wikipedia Commons. In the United States its usage is restricted fairly heavily, including the "non-commercial" bugaboo. It looks to me like, in effect, this would be a "copyrighted with permission but no commercial use" tag. Which, as I understand it, is verboten.
[snip]
So they will SUE US IN A COURT OF LAW IN TRENTON, NEW JERSEY? :)
It's only illegal to use their image if you impersonate them. The copyright of the image itself is that the image is in the public domain. Effectively, it's a Trademark (albeit one without copyright), the misrepresentation of which may render one liable to prosecution.
And if they want to stop us, fsck them. We'll move the media servers to Paris or Amsterdam, on wheels if needs be.
-- Alphax | /"\
A sort of "Howl's Moving Encyclopedia"?
-- Neil