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Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product

bitcoinmagazine.com

21–30 of 91 posts

Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product

#21
post #18

I 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nightmerican system of goverence with non-existent to weak checks and balances across the entire polis and an outdated constitution.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.

And the stock market.

Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product

#22
post #7
post #2

> 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…

> For starters, what goodwill has the Federal Reserve built up? Have you seen the state of the working class today?

The Fed is why America can send pieces of papers and bits and receive trillions of dollars worth of goods and services. Thanks to this, Americans have the highest average disposable incomes in the world and the highest median income in the world behind a tiny tax haven. If Americans aren't able to benefit from this, they have no one to blame but themselves or the other parts of government.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_c...

Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product

#23

Where's the Fed's merch store? I'd buy a genuine FedNow t-shirt.

The St. Louis Fed, a block from the Arch, has an "Economy Museum" with a gift shop. I wonder what they'd have, or if other branches have gift shops (I think they do tours at least?). They say you can get some free shredded money as a souvenir.

Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product

#24
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That said, Bitcoin is a state sponsored pyramid scheme, ... I would say the same about the Federal Reserve.

And the stock market.

I can't wait to start getting my social security checks 30 years from now.

Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product

#25
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That said, Bitcoin is a state sponsored pyramid scheme, ... I would say the same about the Federal Reserve.

And the stock market.

of course without either of these every Americans incomes, wealth, etc would shift to the left by 1 if not 10 decimal places.

Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product

#26

I 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…

First paragraph is on point. Sad about the second paragraph. That isn't a brave or impressive thing to say, it is a common and misinformed perspective.

Regarding Bitcoin, it's important to recognize that it's fundamentally about decentralization of financial control, not necessarily decentralizing value hoarding (though it largely does that too). It uses a distributed ledger technology, where the minting process (mining) and transfers (transactions) are verified by a consensus mechanism across a global network. This eliminates the need for central banking authorities, theoretically reducing the points of failure and censorship. It's designed to be a deflationary currency to counteract inflationary fiat systems, with a predictable supply that's governed by math, not by policy changes. While concerns about energy consumption are valid, the network is increasingly moving towards renewable energy sources and more efficient mining practices. Moreover, innovations like the Lightning Network are addressing scalability and resource issues, aiming to make Bitcoin more sustainable and accessible.

I think you should revisit your talking points / read the code / understand the thing you're talking about before having such a strong (false) statement.

Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product

#27
post #5

FedNow: https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow Apparel: https://store.bitcoinmagazine.com/products/fednow-shirt-1?_p... Not a trademark attourney, but the styling is distinct enough. The use of identical name could be problematic I would think? However, I don't see how this is a "parody" -- I thought parodies have to be clearly different but use similar styling, i.e. call it "FedThen" and cleverly incl…

The "End the FedNow!" merchandise is pretty clearly parody.

The stuff that just has the "FedNow" logo is borderline. I wonder why organizations do this, highlighting the logos of organizations they oppose. I have an EFF hoodie that says "National Security Agency" on the front and "Defund Big Brother" on the back, and I get questions all the time of "Do you work for the NSA?" and then have to turn around and show them the back. I wish parody apparel was always parody at a glance.

Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product

#29
post #14
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Whoever posted an article doesn't seem to have been qualified to know what might and might not land them in hot water. So they should've had a lawyer review the final version. If they're missing that one, what else are they missing.

Re: Federal Reserve is threatening to sue Bitcoin Mag over parody product

#30

I 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…

First paragraph is on point. Sad about the second paragraph. That isn't a brave or impressive thing to say, it is a common and misinformed perspective. Regarding Bitcoin, it's important to recognize that it's fundamentally about decentralization of financial control, not necessarily decentralizing value hoarding (though it largely does that too). It uses a distributed ledger technology, where the minting process (min…

> Regarding Bitcoin [...] the network is increasingly moving [...] more efficient mining practices

Has Bitcoin changed its mining protocol?

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