Last modified: 2018-05-22 by kryštof huk
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Description: Per pale or and azure. Dexter fretty gules nailed with
six-pointed stars or; sinister a demitiated eagle sable armed or.
Aleš Křižan, 19 Dec 2000
Many Czech municipalities don't realize, that they don't have the right to
demand that people obtain permission to use/modify their municipal symbols.
Quite a famous example of this was the Czech Pirate Party branch of Prostějov.
The party decided to create their own flag, which they used as their Facebook
page icon, by superimposing half of a golden skull (dimidiated) over the fretty
(latticework).
The city, reacted by threatening a lawsuit for "desecration"
and "use of the arms without permission". This was completely unviable as Czech
law explicitly excludes municipal symbols from any copyright laws, not to
mention that the arms themselves weren't touched, it was the flag that was
changed. Furthermore, there is the matter of intent as the Pirate Party didn't
intentionally attempt to damage the city's reputation nor desecrate the arms and
flag. Thus the lawsuit never happened but it did start off an initiative called
"Pirating arms" - "Pirátíme znaky" where many local branches of the Czech Pirate
Party adapted their respective municipal arms and flags with pirate symbols. It
fits in well with the CPP's ideology on copyright. Here's a translated statement
from the CPP's vice-president Martin Šmída: "Compared to other scandals, which
we've heard of from Prostějov, this is just a humorous mini-scandal. It is all
the more surprising that city hall should be spending time on such petty
matters. However from the Pirate point of view it is very welcome because it
combines combating the absurdities of bureaucracy with the fight for free use
and the free remixing of works".
Kryštof Huk, 22 Oct 2016