At The Daily Beast, Alex Jones ordered to pay Furie.
Fringe conspiracy-theory outlet InfoWars settled a lawsuit Monday over their use of cartoon character "Pepe the Frog," paying $15,000 to Pepe's creator and promising never to use the cartoon again.
Pepe—a morose, previously apolitical character created by cartoonist Matt Furie—was co-opted by far-right groups and Trump supporters during the 2016 election. Furie has since tried to regain control over the character's image, pursuing legal action against a series of websites.
The InfoWars lawsuit, filed last year, centered on a poster sold by InfoWars featuring Pepe alongside Trumpworld personalities like Roger Stone, InfoWars founder Alex Jones, and pundits "Diamond & Silk."
Before settling, InfoWars tried a novel legal strategy of suggesting, without evidence, that Furie had actually based Pepe on an Argentinian amphibian cartoon character named "El Sapo Pepe." But on Tuesday, InfoWars agreed to destroy all remaining copies of the poster, and pay back the $14,000 it made from the poster sales—along with an additional $1,000.
It's the principle, not the money.
Furie is donating the extra $1,000 to amphibian conservation group Save the Frogs.
"It's a charity dedicated to frog preservation," Tompros said. "Real frogs, not cartoon frogs."
Also at: NPR and The New York Times.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @01:27PM (2 children)
Hoink is now banned from Facebook.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 11 2019, @07:55PM (1 child)
So are clowns, frogs, and a hand signal that non-retards know means "OK," not "white power!"
They are twisting themselves inside-out so fast now that if we could strap some magnets and wire to them we could solve the world's energy problems.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @11:34PM
Sweet Fuck. ^^This^^
That one totally took me by surprise. Saw a couple of articles with the "OK" sign being flashed and associated with white supremacy gang signaling. I was gobsmacked by such an innocent action being misconstrued. It had to be, like you said, as anybody not actually mentally retarded knows the definition.
Reminds me of Clerks II. I'm angry and taking the OK sign back! Last thing I need is some SJW going all retard strong on me because I flashed the OK sign to a waitress.
(Score: 2) by rob_on_earth on Tuesday June 11 2019, @01:41PM (14 children)
Two questions:
How many posters did they have to sell to clear $14,000?
and
Who was buying them?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @01:53PM
The MSM?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @01:53PM (2 children)
The same retards that buy other meme merchandise. Trump running for president was a lucrative time for people selling shirts, hats, flags, posters, etc and it still continues on. There's always someone out there that's gullible, lonely, or just wants a funny shirt.
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Tuesday June 11 2019, @02:07PM
Or an astute investor in rare collectibles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday June 11 2019, @07:53PM
Somewhere in my closet I have a shirt with the DeCSS code on the back. I bought it because the *AA's wanted it outlawed, and I wanted to make sure it remained and to also make a point about free speech. Next to it is a hat with "/." on it, and a coffee mug that says, "All Your Base Are Belong To Us." I bought the first because I love Slashdot, and the second because it was a funny meme. On top of those rests a t-shirt that says "Soylentnews" on it. Last but not least is a t-shirt that says "Froggie Mouth Cave," which is the first stop-motion animation my daughter and her friend made; and I set it up through Cafe Press to pretend like I had happened on their movie by accident and really loved it so I bought the t-shirt. It was meant to encourage their creative efforts.
Sometimes we agree with a message or enjoy a joke and want to do a little more to support it, so merchandise suits that.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday June 11 2019, @02:04PM (6 children)
The situation is now equivalent with Matt Furie having sold, using InfoWars e-commerce platform, a limited edition of Pepe-branded alt-right posters and this will highly likely his most valuable commercial success for the character.
Given the limited edition, those who own these posters will saw their investment going up in the next years, long after InfoWars will be lost in oblivion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday June 11 2019, @03:58PM (5 children)
Is this outcome fair? This issue with Pepe being co-opted to become a mascot for the alt-right is a real mess. I don't know whether to cheer because some alt-right demagogues lost a court case and have to pay damages, or cry because it's only $15K, which is certainly a very feeble wrist slapping to an infamous demagogue. The MAFIAA won a $1.92M verdict against an ordinary citizen, just for "making available" 24 songs, and for this far worse infringement the author himself gets a measly $15k? Does that even pay his legal expenses? Though the $1.92M was reduced to $54K, that's still more than 3 times what the actual author has been awarded in this case.
I wonder if this outcome is really such a good thing, in that it strengthens intellectual property law in what are likely bad ways. This issue is a good example of the confusion surrounding copyright, trademark, and intellectual property law, and why the whole area needs a big rethink. What about Fair Use? Parody?
Most of all, what about the certainty that if not for the alt-right, Pepe would have never become known and (in)famous. One of the primary arguments against Big Media's ludicrous damage claims, is that all that piracy serves as advertising and in some cases might actually increase sales.
The alt-right can make a lot of hay out of all this. Who's stupid now? Them, or the laws and the justice system? They may well be laughing at the smallness of the damage award, and the contemptible stupidities and weaknesses of the law and its enforcement, as they keep right on using Pepe the way they want.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @05:00PM
It is a win. I think everyone agrees copyright lengths are stupid long and the laws are overly restrictive, but few people say they need to disappear altogether. People should be able to protect their creations from misuse, and at least this ruling is against intentional misuse for profit.
I actually think the settlement is perfect. The assholes can't martyr themselves very well over $15k. They'll probably do some 1st Amendment huffing for the serious rubes.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Tuesday June 11 2019, @05:33PM
Continuing the lawsuit would have lost both sides a lot more than $15k each.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Tuesday June 11 2019, @11:08PM (2 children)
I think Matt Furie should stop being such a pussy and thank those "Alt-Right Incels" for elevating him from a nobody mediocre pervert cartoonist into a timeless legend.
Actually, this Ben Garrison cartoon [duckduckgo.com] sums up the Pepe situation rather nicely.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 12 2019, @03:35PM (1 child)
And I think you should keep that nasty stink hole that does double duty shut, but we can't all get what we want.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Wednesday June 12 2019, @11:54PM
Feels good, man.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by ikanreed on Tuesday June 11 2019, @03:22PM (2 children)
1. You're radically underestimating how much dumb people pay for dumb political merchandise in this dumb country of ours.
2. The damage of a fringe site selling your IP attached to fringe ideas is also in the form of reputation. Do you know how hard a Disney would come down on someone selling princess merchandise with anti-vax messages if it got public?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @11:34PM (1 child)
How about anti-wax messages?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 12 2019, @02:29PM
anti-PDP-11?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @07:07PM (5 children)
This seems like fair use. But I guess political climate will make that opinion unpopular.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @07:10PM
I would have posted this with unpopular puffin link but I hear that puffin has good lawyers now.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @07:28PM
It's just like the fucking Commies to try to cease the MEMEs of production. But they will lose eventually, they always do.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by tangomargarine on Tuesday June 11 2019, @08:47PM (2 children)
You consider selling somebody else's trademarked idea to make $14,000 profit "fair use"? Get out of here.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Bot on Wednesday June 12 2019, @05:28AM (1 child)
what you are saying is very true.
OTOH the frog was made famous by the alt right. Infowars is a representative of it. The judge has taken it into account... hophopfully.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 12 2019, @03:44PM
I've seen you be stupid before, but at this point there is a 99.9% chance you're memory has been permanently corrupted.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday June 11 2019, @08:45PM
They're not the ones that need saving so much as they point out [ecology.com] what needs saving. Still, probably a good place to put your money if you want to save the planet in general.