Throughout history, one of the ways in which the human spirit has overcome or dealt with the brutish forces of authoritarian regimes has been through the use of humor. As such, it is no surprise that clever Americans from sea to shining sea have figured out ways to mock the NSA while also making a dollar or two. One of these folks is Dan McCall, founder of politically themed T-shirt company Liberty Maniacs. Several days after the spy scandal erupted, Dan created a shirt that read NSA: The only part of the government that actually listens. See below:
Pretty hilarious right? Well, the NSA didn’t find it particularly funny and, in fact, according to the Daily Dot this is what happened:
“Within an hour or two,” as McCall told the Daily Dot, Zazzle emailed him to say the shirt had been removed from the Zazzle site. (Zazzle didn’t respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment, nor did the NSA.
Zazzle’s first email, which McCall forwarded to the Daily Dot, said in part:
Unfortunately, it appears that your product, The NSA, contains content that is in conflict with one or more of our acceptable content guidelines.
We will be removing this product from the Zazzle Marketplace shortly. …
Result: Not Approved
Policy Notes: Design contains an image or text that may infringe on intellectual property rights. We have been contacted by the intellectual property right holder and we will be removing your product from Zazzle’s Marketplace due to infringement claims.
McCall, who says he’d worked with Zazzle for five years, asked for an explanation, but when the company responded June 11, the distributor didn’t share much more:
Unfortunately, it appears that your product, ” the nsa”, does not meet Zazzle Acceptable Content Guidelines. Specifically, your product contained content which infringes upon the intellectual property rights of National Security Agency.
We have been contacted by legal representatives from the National Security Agency, and at their request, have removed the product from the Zazzle Marketplace.
The NSA: Protecting Americans from terrorists, nuclear war and funny t-shirts since 1952.
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Mike
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What a crock of shit. National Service of Assholes.
Intellectual property would imply intellect. Infringement of copyright would imply that the NSA had a copyright on the image that the designer of the T-shirt came up with. I strongly suspect that the NSA has neither… The NSA works for the American people. They do not get to sue ordinary citizens for IP infringement. TRUTH HURTS, DOESN’T IT, NSA? What a bunch of thin-skinned emotional cripples you are! You didn’t see Dear Leader, Herr Obama, crying because a rodeo clown wore a mask resembling Him, did you? He can’t sue the mask manufacturer for IP infringement because a mask looks somewhat like His visage…or can He???
If their feelings are hurt so badly, I really think it best that they take their football and run home to Mommy…
“Mommy”, Amir, if you go back far enough and research it, is actually called “The Crown”, run by the Rothschild dynasty in London, and owning the Bank of International Settlements, the International Monetary Fund….and all the Federal Reserves. This entity literally rules the world, and plans, after Armageddon, to continue ruling it as a “Hunger Games” reality with Zionist control. Sounds nice? If you’re in the US, Amir, support the bills in the house and senate for the return of the Banking Act of 1933 which will return controls on the financial industry, and set up our own banking system sans control by European financiers. As long as this entity controls our monetary existence, we will be required to war upon the world for their benefit….and particularly, their profit, since they finance all participants in conflicts…and reap billions for their effort. And, I sort of have a different view of what a “New World Order” could actually be. After all, these people have created wars and conflicts for centuries for their profit, control, and power at the expense of virtually every human on earth, if you really look at it.
So….why not create a “Really, Really NEW World Order”…..that confiscates EVERYTHING this group…and I mean every asset….has ever accrued…..and establish a bank that goes back and rebuilds everything these actions have destroyed? Sounds like a plan to me. After all, if just a few billion of the earth’s population learn about this….what chance do a few bankers in London have? Not much if the public is riled. I’ll take those odds.
I think the NWO is already here, we live in it.
We can’t be fooled by flags when we know most countries are under the banksters domination, nearly the whole world is…the fight in Syria is about the completion of the global banksters’ plan.
Go to any airport near Washington DC. Gift shops sell FBI and CIA stuff everywhere. But they don’t sell any NSA branded stuff. Because the NSA doesn’t let them.
Only place you can get NSA stuff is at the National Cryptography Museum which happens to be right in front of NSA Headquarters. There is a shop there that has many of the same products that NSA staff can buy. The museum has free admission. Profits from the gift shop go to a NSA sponsored charity
… Profits from the gift shop go to a NSA sponsored charity…
Do u know wich ones pls ?
I also worked with Zazzle for over 1 year, designing politically-orientated t-shirts, hats and stickers. All was well – for a couple of months, that is. But then Zazzle sent me the EXACT message that McCall received, and began removing my products.
Though I never designed an NSA product, I did design products with the TSA, DHS, UN, Federal Reserve, Agenda 21 and other logos.
So, I tried something new. I created my own logo, rather than using the official logo, yet still containing the name of the agency/organization I was criticizing. And they continued to remove my products.
They even removed several products that I designed that were critical of Nazism (complete with the circle and slash over the swastika) because the designs did not comply with “acceptable guidelines”. I would imagine they were deemed offensive (due to the swastika). Give me a break!
I even created a load of generic products – no names, logos or agencies, just a general message regarding war, the police state, big brother, etc., and little by little, they began removing them because they, too, did not comply with their “acceptable guidelines”.
I became convinced that Zazzle was intentionally harassing me because of my pro-liberty views, and after several heated telephone conversations with the snot-nosed California hipsters that they employ, I decided it was no longer worth the effort and removed the hundreds of other products that I created.
Though I was selling some of these products like hotcakes (with Zazzle getting the largest cut of the action), it was clear the were squeezing me out of business.
I recently began working with Cafe Press (a Zazzle competitor), designing items on a trial run, strictly for my own use, to see what their reaction would be.
Again, all was fine – for a couple of months, until I began designing products critical of Lord Obama. There was nothing profane, racist or inappropriate about them. In fact, they were quite tame. But they refused to produce them. And now this company is history as well, as far as I’m concerned.
I cannot help but to think that “someone” is directing these companies to make it as difficult as possible for anyone to design a product critical of particular people in government (I use that term loosely in regard to Lord Obama!), or particular agencies, organizations or points of view.
This must be the “Hope and Change” they were talking about.
My guess is that it’s time for conservative minded businessmen like you to band together and form an organization to create a website to compete with Zazzle, et. al.
It’s possible to claim a “Fair Use” defense under the copyright act.
“The United States Supreme Court in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. (1994) stated in no uncertain terms that a parody as a form of criticism or comment could be fair use of a copyrighted work.” – See more at: http://corporate.findlaw.com/intellectual-property/parody-fair-use-or-copyright-infringement.html#sthash.7u30lUOh.dpuf
The government can’t have intellectual property rights, so it’s doubly bullshit. He should fight this.
The copyright claim is BS. You are allowed to use something that is copyrighted when you are parodying it. Think Saturday Night Live making fun of some company or product. Think of the old Wacky Packages cards that parodied every product imaginable. Parody is protected free speech that overrules claims of copyright. The shirt design parodies the agency. Even so, the shirt designer could make a slightly different NSA eagle (if that is in fact the NSA logo) and he would be in an even better legal position. It’s no different from street vendors selling shirts that say FBI or something. He should fight it or ask the ACLU for help since it is a free speech issue.
Change the eagle to a vulture. Case solved.
Yeah the seal is too close to the original, I am seeing others messing with the picture in the middle but doubt many of those have been put on Zazzle t-shirts. And now that I look, I wonder why Mossad caps show up in a search for NSA.
What a BS system people have to deal with in the USSA. It’s pathetic and unacceptable. If you think it’s bad now, It’s only going to get worse if people let them run their BS. You have to stand up NOW for freedom and just rights.
Do it now while there is still time before they start shoving their weapons in your face or just take you away at the first hint of opposition to their tyranny. At that point it will be communist Russia all over again and you don’t want that in any way, shape or form. If Americans let that happen it will be many generations before they are able to remove the destruction that system will do to their collective souls, personalities, emotional make-up, intellect, drive, etc.
Just take a trip to Eastern Europe and visit the countries that went under 40 years of communism which supposedly ended in 1991. That’s over 20 years ago now. The people are still collectively, extremely damaged and ruined from that insanity. Don’t let it happen here. Don’t let it happen. Don’t let it happen!
I just checked Zazzle and they have NSA t-shirts listed.
That logo was taxpayer funded. The NSA has zero ownership of a copyright on that logo.
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LOL!! “The Only Part Of The Government That Actually Listens” That’s great! You should trade mark that. It’s pretty funny.