Wikipedia GC Says Threatening FBI Letter Cited ‘Aspirational Version’ of Law
Wikipedia’s lawyer has fired off a letter to the FBI claiming the bureau cited an “aspirational version” of the law when it threatened a lawsuit over the website’s display of the agency seal.
The letter (PDF) by Michael Godwin, general counsel for Wikipedia parent company Wikimedia, took issue with an FBI request that the website take down the image, the New York Times reports. Wikipedia contends the law cited by the FBI was aimed at protecting the public from people who use fake government badges to assert authority, rather than online noncommercial encyclopedias.
“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,” Godwin wrote.
Cindy Cohn, the legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told the Times that constitutional law—namely, the First Amendment—also supports Wikipedia.
The New York Times apparently disagrees with the FBI’s interpretation of the law. Its story includes an image of the FBI seal.
