

The Maker of the Trollface Meme - chkuendig
http://kotaku.com/the-maker-of-the-trollface-meme-is-counting-his-money-1696228810/+tcberman

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JoshTriplett
"Inventor of image only made popular by people widely copying and remixing it
starts suing people over it now that it's popular."

I half expected the post date to be April 1 (it wasn't), or for the last line
of the article to be "And if you believed a word of the above, here's an image
for you:" (it wasn't).

~~~
TillE
"Popularity" really isn't the point. He's going after people who are profiting
off his copyrighted work.

I know casual copyright infringement is the norm on the internet (eg,
distributing images from god knows where), and maybe that's okay, but you've
certainly crossed an ethical line when you've started selling it without
permission.

~~~
ajuc
It's not illegal or evil, but it's bad style.

The value of the image is 99.9% associations it aquired thanks to the
"copyright is bad" culture using it under assumption that it is public domain.

Changing it now is bad style, and it sets bad example for others that may take
this further. I know slippery slope isn't a very strong argument, but it is
still valid concern.

I wonder if 4chan should adopt GPL-like licencing.

~~~
userbinator
NC-SA, which oddly enough doesn't actually exist as a real Creative Commons
license, would be more similar to what 4chan users treat memes as - non-
commercial and share-alike, but no attribution nor any other the other
restrictions.

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greggyb
Why so much hate when an artist enforces his own copyright on an image, but
only against companies or individuals profiting from it?

It seems pretty darn similar to when a company is sued for GPL infringement,
but no one cares about the little projects that gain no traction that are
probably in technical violation of the license.

~~~
MichaelGG
It's more like an author starts contributing to an open source project, and
everyone things he is contributing under the license. Then he turns around and
says "what, no, this is copyright me, all rights reserved".

~~~
greggyb
So if there were a class action lawsuit representing all 4chan users targeting
the same individuals/companies that the artist is, then you'd see that as
fine?

Note: not aggressive/flippant - I understand best through examples and
hypotheticals. I am legitimately curious, because in my mind my original post
seems a fair analogy to me and I want to know what I'm seeing differently than
most of the commenters here.

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scotty79
So trollface author became actual copyright troll himself clipping coupons of
people who use it, but without reimbursing millions of people who made the
trollface what it is today, a recognizable sign.

~~~
kefka
His idea is "If you're going to make money on it, I want a cut".

I'm OK with that.

~~~
scotty79
Lots of people are ok with that, especially in the US. That's why it's
possible.

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tacojuan
Hmm... maybe someone should tip off the Pepe frog creator.

Someone is flat-out selling remixes of that meme. (hopefully just as a joke)

[http://normi.es/getout/](http://normi.es/getout/)

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shultays
Isn't troll face was "cool face" before? I thought the original comic was not
about troll at all, can't search it at work.

~~~
msl09
Unfortunately deviant art does not give us the exact date that an image was
posted:

[http://whynne.deviantart.com/art/Comic-
Trolls-98357844?offse...](http://whynne.deviantart.com/art/Comic-
Trolls-98357844?offset=2800#comments)

Cool face seemed to be posted first in 2008-12-01 and trollface somewhere in
2008.

[http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/80430987/](http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/80430987/)

~~~
cremno
>Submitted on September 19, 2008

But that doesn't matter that much since it was originally posted on 4chan and
not DA.

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Paul_S
I bet there are trolls out there right now registering all images on 4chan in
case one of them becomes popular.

~~~
MichaelGG
How did anyone verify that this guy actually created Trollface?

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wiradikusuma
Just curious, is it "ok" to publish something without accompanying license,
and later when it becomes popular, start demanding licenses?

~~~
ekianjo
You got to love copyright laws. The man who drew the troll face became a
license troll himself.

~~~
anon4
He's not a license troll, he's sensibly enforcing his license. If he were a
troll, he'd be suing individuals for posting free comics featuring his
creation, asking for exorbitant fees.

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amagumori
the trollface originates from the "problem, officer?" comic, not the one
referenced in the article. i don't think this guy is the original creator.

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sarciszewski
ITT: people who believe that just because something originated on 4chan, it
has no inherent value

~~~
rubbingalcohol
ITT: people who think licenses apply to copyrighted works based on how they
"feel" about it.

~~~
sarciszewski
Yeah, that too.

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towelguy
The guy posted it in 4chan, an anonymous image board. Shouldn't that make it
public domain? If he copyrighted it after that, shouldn't people be able to
use the version of the image they got before the copyright?

Also, 4chan doesn't keep archives, how do we know he's the original author
anyway?

~~~
krapp
>Shouldn't that make it public domain?

If that were true, wouldn't every copyrighted image or torrent posted to 4chan
automatically lose its copyright status? IANAL, but in the US at least,
copyright is automatically held by the creator of a work whether or not it's
explicitly licensed[0]. Posting something to a forum doesn't affect the rights
held by the owner in any way, at best it just ignores them.

>Also, 4chan doesn't keep archives, how do we know he's the original author
anyway? There are a ton of sites which keep archives of 4chan threads.

[0][http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/copyright-
automatic.h...](http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/copyright-
automatic.html)

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triangleman
You know what would have been great? If this article was titled _The Maker of
the Coolface Meme_.

~~~
simlevesque
Gawker's gonna Gawk

