US Government Logos and Copyright. Safe for CMO Scenarios?

[ColdFrontOps]

Hi all,

I’d like to get some clarity on the use of official US government seals like the CIA, DoD, or other agency logos in our CMO scenarios, especially when creating immersive facsimile HTML5 messages or documents.

Here’s the actual legal text regarding the CIA seal as an example:

"No person may, except with the written permission of the Director, knowingly use the words 'Central Intelligence Agency', the initials 'CIA', the seal of the Central Intelligence Agency, or any colorable imitation of such words, initials, or seal in connection with any merchandise, impersonation, solicitation, or commercial activity in a manner reasonably calculated to convey the impression that such use is approved, endorsed, or authorized by the Central Intelligence Agency."

This seems to suggest that using official agency seals, names, or even similar imitations in any commercial context, including scenario uploads could be problematic if it appears to imply endorsement or official connection.

My questions to the forum:

- Should we, or can we, use official US government seals on in-game facsimile messages and documents for immersion?
- Or do we need to use fake or fictionalized seals to avoid legal issues?
- Could this create a problem when uploading scenarios to Steam, even if we’re not based in the USA, since Steam might adhere to US law or platform policies?
- Has anyone here had experience with scenario takedowns or warnings related to this issue?

Would appreciate any insights or experiences from the community

Thanks!
Frank

[thewood1]

A) I doubt the CIA has the ability, even with the outrageous number Fed lawyers, to go after that level of use.

B) There is such a thing as fair use of public assets. As long as you are not implying affiliation or making money directly off insinuating affiliation, you have nothing to worry about.

Thats why you can use the term CIA and even its logo in the background of a movie or TV show. Don't over-think it.

btw, this is a real-world issue for me and my company. We publish 100os of reports annually and use the terms pictures of logos all the time. Our lawyers are well versed in how to do that.

[ColdFrontOps]

Thank you, that is reassuring.
I'm building a few scenarios and don't want to have to re-do all the messages etc.

Cheers,
Frank

[HalfLifeExpert]

For starters, I seriously doubt you will be in trouble for using "CIA" as it's extremely well known and used everywhere.

Second, if it's for free community scenarios that you are not making money on, I don't see any issue.

Three, unlike corporations and private entities, the US Govt. is a public entity, so I think "fair use" would generally protect you.

Finally, the Command community is relatively small enough that I highly doubt the government lawyers would waste time and effort pursuing this.

[Mgellis]

On a side note, if you are looking for images of ships, aircraft, etc., I believe the ones produced by the US military or other federal agencies are usually in the public domain. (Obviously, check and make sure before you use an image, but there are a huge number of military images on Wikipedia that, when you click them, copyright information or public domain status is usually provided).