I don't completely agree with the point of Bitcoin Magazine, but the blatant attempt to suppress satire and criticism is deeply troubling.
Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product
11–20 of 91 posts
Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product
#12[flagged]
Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product
#13I don't have a problem with surveillance. I have a problem with surveillance under the undemocratic, nightmerican system of goverence with non-existent to weak checks and balances across the entire polis and an outdated constitution.
That said, Bitcoin is a state sponsored pyramid scheme, and only someone riding the coattails of early adoption and espousing permanent oligarch rule through its lack of taxation could ever speak highly of its poor design, replacing centralized banking with a centralized computing infrastructure arms race to the detriment of the world's resources. There, I said it.
Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Uhhhh... what? Doesn't the Copyright Act of 1976 place government works into public domain? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_works_by... Yes, yes it does. Reading the Fed's C&D, their complaint is about the trademark, not copyright. The magazine's lawyer's response is also about trademark, not copyright. The author of this article isn't as familiar with the law as the lawyers are.
It appears that they didn't have a lawyer review the final version of an article about a legal case in which they're involved (since I think a lawyer would've caught the "copyright" bit). When you're being sued, you should be careful about what you say about that, especially what you put in writing, and publish globally. So I think this is one example of them not consulting a lawyer enough.
I'm not a lawyer but I suspect that confusing copyright and trademark isn't going to land them in particularly hot water.
And, their lawyer's response is pretty decent. I think that there's lots wrong with everything cryptocurrency, but their shirt looks like a rock solid parody.
Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product
#15[deleted]
Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product
#16> The U.S. Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Magazine, alleging apparel that parodies its FedNow system is not protected speech, but copyright infringement. Looks like infringement of trademark, not of copyright. It might be protected speech, but I suspect that Bitcoin Magazine isn't consulting a lawyer as much as they should.
You're really underselling it. They're replying to the Fed as if their cease-and-desist letter were no more than some sort of internet argument on Reddit or something. Here's a sample, to encourage folks to read the article and have a good hearty chuckle themselves: > > “The Federal Reserve has extensively used and promoted the FEDNOW mark and has built up substantial goodwill in this invaluable asset. Financial inst…
Exactly, I don't understand how
>Have you seen the state of the working class today?
is a better response in their minds than pointing out that FedNow has only really been around since the end of July, relatively few people are aware of it (AFAIK), and financial institutions are not going to confuse the Federal Reserve and a magazine. It's not about the Fed's goodwill, it's about the goodwill associated with the FedNow trademark, but they seem to think inflation is a counterargument.
Personally, I would have gone with "FED NO" on the shirts or included the "The digital panopticon is here" tagline on them.
Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product
#17Where's the Fed's merch store? I'd buy a genuine FedNow t-shirt.
Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product
#18I don't have a problem with surveillance. I have a problem with surveillance under the undemocratic, nightmerican system of goverence with non-existent to weak checks and balances across the entire polis and an outdated constitution. That said, Bitcoin is a state sponsored pyramid scheme, and only someone riding the coattails of early adoption and espousing permanent oligarch rule through its lack of taxation could e…
> That said, Bitcoin is a state sponsored pyramid scheme, ...
I would say the same about the Federal Reserve.
Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product
#19I don't have a problem with surveillance. I have a problem with surveillance under the undemocratic, nightmerican system of goverence with non-existent to weak checks and balances across the entire polis and an outdated constitution. That said, Bitcoin is a state sponsored pyramid scheme, and only someone riding the coattails of early adoption and espousing permanent oligarch rule through its lack of taxation could e…
[dead]
Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product
#20> The U.S. Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Magazine, alleging apparel that parodies its FedNow system is not protected speech, but copyright infringement. Looks like infringement of trademark, not of copyright. It might be protected speech, but I suspect that Bitcoin Magazine isn't consulting a lawyer as much as they should.
Uhhhh... what? Doesn't the Copyright Act of 1976 place government works into public domain? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_works_by... Yes, yes it does. Reading the Fed's C&D, their complaint is about the trademark, not copyright. The magazine's lawyer's response is also about trademark, not copyright. The author of this article isn't as familiar with the law as the lawyers are.
> Doesn't the Copyright Act of 1976 place government works into public domain?
The Federal Reserve is about as federal as Federal Express.