UPDATE: Legal smarty pants Jonathan Turley pasted the offensive logo all over his blog. He does have a warning. See below.
——
President Obama and his staff are well aware of the power of symbols. Remember the “vero possumus” faux Presidential seal candidate Obama used? Then there was the fictitious Office of the President Elect seal. Now that Obama has a claim on the real things, his office is very protective of seals and logos used in misleading ways. A science blog posted a harmless notice about a President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology meeting. The post included the Executive Office logo used by the Office of Science and Technology. The blogger, Keith Cowling, received a call expressing concern about the legal implications of using the logo so near an advertisement on the blog. The call came from a White House staffer.
White House Threatens Science Blog Over Use of Logo
The legal basis for the claim is unclear, but the story does sound familiar. In July of 2010, the FBI made a similar demand to Wikipedia for its use of the FBI seal on a Wikipedia entry about, no surprise, the FBI. That claim was made under 18 U.S.C. sec. 701, which is aimed at use of government seals to deceive the public. Wikipedia’s lawyers responded with a detailed letter pointing out, among other things, that their use wasn’t deceptive. The FBI went away.
Cowling’s use isn’t deceptive either. The seal is plainly used in conjunction with the news article and the advertisement is no closer on this blog than ads are on news websites and in most newspapers and magazines for that matter. In fact, the seal of the Executive Office of the President of the United States is used extensively all over the internet, sometimes even in promixity to advertising. Threatening phone calls from the White House only serve to chill free speech.
Instead of removing the logo, the blogger obscured it with text stating
“OSTP Logo Pixelated Due to a Phone Call Complaint from the White House.”
I wonder if the government hires people to search the internet for questionable use of logos or if it is incidental to checking content generally. In either case, I don’t think it gets the seal of approval from the American people.
WARNING: THE INCLUSION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL SEAL ABOVE IS NOT AN ENDORSEMENT OF THIS BLOG OR ITS IDEAS OR CLAIMS OR SUGGESTIONS OR HINTS OR ELUSIONS. FOR EXAMPLE, THE PRESIDENT IS NOT ENDORSING THE LINE OF HIGH QUALITY TURLEY PRODUCTS INCLUDING “PROFESSOR ON A ROPE” SOAP, TURLEY BUSTS (IN A VARIETY OF HEROIC IMAGES), TURLEY TEESHIRTS, TURLEY COFFEE MUGS ETC. THE PRESIDENT IS NOT NECESSARILY SAYING THAT ANY GOOD AMERICAN SHOULD READ THE TURLEY BLOG AT LEAST FIVE TIMES A DAY. HOWEVER THE WHITE HOUSE IS NOT DENYING THAT THE PRESIDENT HIMSELF READS THIS BLOG AND CONSULTS ITS DAILY ENTRIES LIKE A STAR CHART EVERY MORNING.
What this administration needs is a Logo Czar.
I got a logo for his hine-ass’ reelection. Its a picture of a foot kicking him in the butt as he flies out the White House doors! With the words: “Tea Party Rules!” (Arrogant pfuck!!)
[…] White House Threatens Science Blog Over Use of Logo The legal basis for the claim is unclear, but the story does sound familiar. In July of 2010, the FBI made a similar demand to Wikipedia for its use of the FBI seal on a Wikipedia entry about, no surprise, the FBI. That claim was made under 18 U.S.C. sec. 701, which is aimed at use of government seals to deceive the public. Wikipedia’s lawyers responded with a detailed letter pointing out, among other things, that their use wasn’t deceptive. The FBI went away. […]