​Pepe the Frog creator brings copyright lawsuit

[struggle4progress]

... The anthropomorphic frog’s creator, artist Matt Furie, filed suit this week in U.S. District Court in California, alleging copyright infringement and seeking unspecified damages. He also seeks a permanent injunction barring unauthorized use of the image by assorted alt-right factions.

Furie claims he filed suit because he’s “dismayed by Pepe’s association with white supremacy, anti-Semitism, and the alt-right,” including unauthorized use of the image by Trump and his supporters, including Alex Jones.

Defendants named in the action are Infowars, LLC, and Free Speech Systems, LLC, two Texas-based companies managed by Jones, a far-right radio host and promoter of assorted conspiracy theories ...

https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/03/08/%E2%80%8Bpepe-frog-creator-brings-copyright-lawsuit

[Kirk Lover]

1. Fuck yeah! Pepe needs to be rebranded as the Peace Frog.

[TheBlackAdder]

2. 10 or more copyright infringements changes from civil to criminal consequences.

[dhill926]

3. sue the fuckers out of existence....

[RandomAccess]

4. I thought this already happened --

a number of months ago. ????

[meow2u3]

5. Now, this is the way to shut down those far right hatemongers

Sue the living hell out of them! The damages the hatemongers will have to pay, should Furie win (which I think he will), will end up breaking them financially.

In short, the best way to hurt evil people is to hurt their pocketbooks.

[BootinUp]

6. Go get 'em man. nt

[0rganism]

7. Pepe revival imminent?

as a frequent twitch viewer, it's been really hard to deal with the implicit association of Pepe with the alt-right assholes. Pepe was one of their first victims and they brandish his effigy like a mascot.

Pepe is a super expressive emoter, and i will inappropriately celebrate his return to decent society.

[eggplant]

8. It's probably too late.

You have to actively defend your copyright or you lose it. Pepe has been getting abused for a long time now.

[not fooled]

9. Yeah

why didn't he do this earlier?

[Hekate]

12. Because lawyers cost a ton of money?

I sometimes wonder: out of all the many DUers who insist that other people should file lawsuits -- how many have actually done so themselves. Not you in particular; it's just a thing here.

[BigmanPigman]

10. Good for him.

Artists are ripped off all the time and lose credit and money (which is hard to come by in the profession). Making this art into a symbol of hate is double the damage.

[flibbitygiblets]

11. Yeah! And if the artist wins, we can support him by re-purposing the image: Pepe the Tolerance Frog

I could get behind that.