11 ms·

I agree the FBI went about this in the wrong way by threatening Wikipedia. But would it be so awful for Wikimedia not to post a 2000px X 2000px high quality re

I agree the FBI went about this in the wrong way by threatening Wikipedia. But would it be so awful for Wikimedia not to post a 2000px X 2000px high quality rendering of the FBI seal? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/US-FBI-ShadedSeal.svg/2000px-US-FBI-ShadedSeal.svg.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/US-... There are limits to free speech -- no yelling fire in a crowded theater and all that. I am just asking, is a huge, beautiful rendering really necessary and responsible? Maybe if the FBI had asked that question instead of threatening they would have gotten a different answer.

adolph 16y ago
Part of the concept of free speech is that it doesn't need to be responsible, necessary, understandable, or anything. Unless it is used in the commission of a crime, it is free.
GFischer 16y ago
This poster has a point, why do you downvote instead of answering or disagreeing? I'm rooting for the underdog (especially when it's a public service like Wikipedia vs the big bad US Government agency), but he's asking for Wikipedia's criteria for selecting the image size for display. Apparently there are valid reasons, which the FBI will not like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_picture_criteria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_picture_crit... "(...) of sufficiently high resolution to allow quality print reproduction. Still images should be a minimum of 1000 pixels in width or height; larger sizes are generally preferred. The size of animated images is judged less strictly, though larger is still preferred."
- jacobolus 16y ago
  The “featured picture criteria” are not the same as the criteria for any image anywhere on the site. It is doubtful that the FBI seal would ever be a featured picture.
  - GFischer 16y ago
    Thanks, I did not know that (nor the fact that it was SVG). Still, it's one of the criteria for uploading images that Wikipedia uses (if it ever decided to feature the seal, it would use this criterion for doing so). Edit: mattlanger here ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1571316 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1571316 ) has a counterpoint for what I posted http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Logos http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Logos Relevant sections "Logos uploaded to Wikipedia must be low resolution and no larger than necessary." and "U.S. law prohibits the reproduction of designated logos of U.S. government agencies without permission. Use restrictions of such logos must be followed and permission obtained before use, if required. However, this does not affect the copyright status, because as works of the federal government, they are automatically in the public domain. These should be tagged with {{insignia}}."
- davidw 16y ago
  Once upon a time, this site had something of a tradition of saving the "piling on downvotes" for people who were outright rude/aggressive/trolling rather than saying something that was simply wrong.
- halo 16y ago
  The seal has been uploaded to Wikipedia as an SVG. SVG is a vector image format, which allows for arbitrary resizing without any loss in quality, while the PNG (raster) version is automatically generated on Wikipedia's servers at whatever size the user wants. N.B.: I did not downvote.
  - lpellis 16y ago
    Yup it is automatically generated Here is the image 300px wide http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/US-FBI-ShadedSeal.svg/300px-US-FBI-ShadedSeal.svg.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/US-... and 500px http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/US-FBI-ShadedSeal.svg/500px-US-FBI-ShadedSeal.svg.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/US-...
shortformblog 16y ago
I argue the rendering is actually pretty inaccurate, considering that cheesy-looking gradients don't really do actual metal justice. I certainly wouldn't be fooled if I saw someone showing off Wikipedia's rendition of the badge. It's good enough to explain the article, but in terms of creating fakes? It sucks.

adolph 16y ago

Part of the concept of free speech is that it doesn't need to be responsible, necessary, understandable, or anything. Unless it is used in the commission of a crime, it is free.

GFischer 16y ago

This poster has a point, why do you downvote instead of answering or disagreeing? I'm rooting for the underdog (especially when it's a public service like Wikipedia vs the big bad US Government agency), but he's asking for Wikipedia's criteria for selecting the image size for display. Apparently there are valid reasons, which the FBI will not like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_picture_criteria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Featured_picture_crit... "(...) of sufficiently high resolution to allow quality print reproduction. Still images should be a minimum of 1000 pixels in width or height; larger sizes are generally preferred. The size of animated images is judged less strictly, though larger is still preferred."

jacobolus 16y ago
The “featured picture criteria” are not the same as the criteria for any image anywhere on the site. It is doubtful that the FBI seal would ever be a featured picture.
- GFischer 16y ago
  Thanks, I did not know that (nor the fact that it was SVG). Still, it's one of the criteria for uploading images that Wikipedia uses (if it ever decided to feature the seal, it would use this criterion for doing so). Edit: mattlanger here ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1571316 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1571316 ) has a counterpoint for what I posted http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Logos http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Logos Relevant sections "Logos uploaded to Wikipedia must be low resolution and no larger than necessary." and "U.S. law prohibits the reproduction of designated logos of U.S. government agencies without permission. Use restrictions of such logos must be followed and permission obtained before use, if required. However, this does not affect the copyright status, because as works of the federal government, they are automatically in the public domain. These should be tagged with {{insignia}}."
davidw 16y ago
Once upon a time, this site had something of a tradition of saving the "piling on downvotes" for people who were outright rude/aggressive/trolling rather than saying something that was simply wrong.
halo 16y ago
The seal has been uploaded to Wikipedia as an SVG. SVG is a vector image format, which allows for arbitrary resizing without any loss in quality, while the PNG (raster) version is automatically generated on Wikipedia's servers at whatever size the user wants. N.B.: I did not downvote.
- lpellis 16y ago
  Yup it is automatically generated Here is the image 300px wide http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/US-FBI-ShadedSeal.svg/300px-US-FBI-ShadedSeal.svg.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/US-... and 500px http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/US-FBI-ShadedSeal.svg/500px-US-FBI-ShadedSeal.svg.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/70/US-...

shortformblog 16y ago

I argue the rendering is actually pretty inaccurate, considering that cheesy-looking gradients don't really do actual metal justice. I certainly wouldn't be fooled if I saw someone showing off Wikipedia's rendition of the badge. It's good enough to explain the article, but in terms of creating fakes? It sucks.