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Posted on 08/21/2013 1:39:48 PM PDT by Nachum
The National Security Agency, the secretive federal department under fire for spying on U.S. citizens, is now accused of crushing the free-speech rights of a businessman clowning around about the NSA.
LibertyManiacs.com, a company that markets “freedom products for liberty lovers,” says the NSA is using a claim of copyright infringement to stop it from selling T-shirts and other products making fun of the Big Brother agency.
“Two months ago the NSA’s lawyers came after our parodies of the rogue agency and forced our host to take them down,” the company said Friday on its Facebook page.
At issue is use of the NSA logo, which was partially altered by LibertyManiacs owner Dan McCall. He kept the name of the agency and most of the artwork intact, but changed the bottom portion from “United States of America” to the laugh-inspiring “Peeping while you’re sleeping.”
Underneath the doctored logo is the phrase “The NSA, the only part of government that actually listens.”
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
I do not believe that there are the normal copyright concerns with government materials. I’m not sure about the logos. The idea being it is a government by the people and we the people own the products of that government.
NSA Parody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYZ4Dn1oSlg
NSAuron.
One Nation, Under Surveillance, with liberty and justice for none.
I'll bet this response is coming from further up the executive branch flowchart. D.C. has lots of politically-themed "theatre" groups and impersonators (heavy on the past Republican presidents, of course). I've actually seen one skit where a GWB lookalike defends surveillance activities by saying "Hey, Americans complained that I wasn't listening, so..." And *that* was prefectly okay, nobody got their underwear in a twist.
Only Communists are this humorless.
What with NSA, TSA, Homeland Security, the US must be the safest country in the world
The 'everyone gets an award' culture of public school. It doesn't increase their self esteem. It turns them into uneducated drones who don't have any sense of humor. That would require analytical reasoning.
Funny
As far as I know (not a lawyer here), text can be copied and reposted from government documents (unless classified), but using the seals of government offices is a no-no. They don’t want any business, group or individual impersonating their agencies or employees for obvious reasons and probably don’t want incremental efforts by anyone instigating more moves toward doing so. After the banks closed in Argentina, kidnappers sometimes wore police emblems.
NSA has no (tm) so it can’t be claimed to be copywrited.
****************************
A good example of that is “CIA”. CIA is also the Culinary Institute of America, where many chefs are trained.
There is a video on the Ben Swann’s page.
Exclusive: NSA Using Copyright Claims To Crush Free Speech?
http://benswann.com/exclusive-nsa-using-copyright-claims-to-crush-free-speech/
In the video Ben Swann tells about a small graphics firm that was going to make t-shirts & used the logo and they told him it was copyright.
Ben goes into the full explanation on that.
The other logo that is shown in Ben Swann’s video is the logo for PRISM which was stolen from someone else and turned upside down. NSA / PRISM has never paid for that logo for PRISM and never given acknowledgment either.
“How can the federal gooberment copyright something. It’s the work product of our taxes.”
Exactly. but even if it weren’t, it’s not only protected political speech (parody) but it would fall under the “fair use” exemption to copyright law, too, given that it is protected political speech.
/johnny
Bad.
Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!
To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don’t add you to the list...
The only part of government that actually listens. Love it.
Not surprising that Screwtape's minions are not happy. The Devil has no sense of humor.
And they'll waste We the People's money.
Hey, wish all the idiot trolls in the past who screamed that FR ‘censored’ ythem could see this REAL example of what censorship is.
Censorship, banning a statement, opinion, or position BY THE GOVERNMENT.
This is censorship of protected parody by an organ of government.
http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/foia/submit_foia_request/foia_request_form.shtml
The NSA has an web page for FOIA submissions - linked above.
It is really easy.
Perhaps we could organize a one million FOIA march on the NSA?
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