Matt Furie has a high-powered law firm pursuing me for painting Pepe. I am planning on fighting this on many fronts, but most important among them is that I am exercising my religious freedom as a Kekistani.
Of course I have not mentioned this in my official response, as I do not want to play my cards. But I am looking forward to hearing from you, Sup Forums, as I need your help right now.
We all know that KEK is real, that meme magic is real, and that the Old Order is extremely threatened by the manifestation of KEK in the modern world. This is further manifestation of that fear.
Wut do?
Pic related. It is an official notice from Furie's law firm.
If you are Larping or you really just doxxed yourself, don't care. sage
Jayden Turner
I am going to add all the content of this letter and then share my initial reply with Sup Forums
pic related - page 2
Joseph Turner
You're going to lose, since he's already won cases and established that Pepe is his Intellectual Property.
You can meme Pepe pics on shit holes like this, but you can't make things and sell them.
Also, KEK and "Meme Magic" aren't real you fucking retard.
Brayden Gutierrez
KEK has fully triggered the normies
pic related: page three
Lincoln Jackson
What is real is what is perceived to be real.
What is actual is what can be measured.
What can be measured can be tested.
Meme magic can be tested, can it not?
Please reply to my reply, leaf. You don't even wait for it.
pic related - last page
Noah Gray
Here is my reply.
===part 1===
Mr. Louis Tompros (et. al.),
I understand that your client wishes to eliminate all possibility of his original artwork being used to advertise or otherwise support political messages with which he disagrees. However, I fail to see how his copyright was in any way infringed; I have created works that are so dissimilar that, as with the Cheshire Cat, only the smile remains.
I refer you to Kienitz v. Sconnie Nation LLC and Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., both of which were decided in favor of the defendants, as a preliminary basis for my rejection of your claim. I will add an observation that “the Pepe” which I treat in my artwork entered into the political dialogue when then-candidate Hillary Clinton referred to the Pepe meme (as distinct from the Furie cartoon) as part of a far-right strategy designed to manipulate people into liking and voting for Donald Trump. Also, candidate Donald Trump tweeted an image that was patently *not* a Furie cartoon. In this sense my painting style is informed by the “Political Pepe” and not the “Furie Pepe.” They are as dissimilar as Danger Mouse and Mickey Mouse.
Cameron Sullivan
===part 2===
I am a political artist who analyzes current events and creates work that is timely, provocative, critical and parodical. I am not alt-right, a neo-nazi or any other terrible label. Contrary to your assertion I do not promote alt-right messages, violence or hate. Rather, I am an urban farmer who works in one of the most economically distressed and ethnically diverse regions of the Midwest US. My home is across the street from a Somalian Mosque and I sell fruits and vegetables to people who attend religious services. Your labeling me as a purveyor of violent rhetoric is itself a form of violence perpetrated against a person about whom you know absolutely nothing.
You have linked a large list of artworks that I created and marketed on E-Bay. A cursory examination will reveal that the images (and political context) are so dissimilar from the Furie Pepe that they can be considered "original" and not derivative; alternatively, my images are influenced by a political dialogue that is scoped outside the protected body of work. Further to this point, I was not aware of the existence of Furie or his original artwork. Rather, I became aware of "Political Pepe" following Hillary Clinton's exposition on the subject (the famous “Donald Trump, Pepe the frog, and white supremacists: an explainer.”) By the time I began investigating this, Pepe had ceased being the creation of Matt Furie and became an altogether separate, distinct part of the political conversation surrounding the 2016 election. My artwork was and remains part of that dialogue.
Adrian King
This is an obvious LARP. Fuck off back to kekistan plebbit fag
Andrew Bennett
If you walk into a courtroom spouting "meme magic" "KEK wills it" and that autist faggotry to a judge, you might as well walk in there with a polo shirt, khakis and a tiki torch.
The real world is a real place dipshit. And laughing at what a dumbass you are isn't being "triggered" it's being satisfied. KEK wills that every dog has it's day, howabout that?
Jordan Cruz
Parody. Leave the Kekistani garbage out of it. Unless you have enough followers you are not officially, legally recognized as a religion, and that has to come first.
But depending on what you depicted you can be within legal grounds of the parody laws.
Also hire a fucking lawyer, fuckwit.
Isaac Allen
===part 3===
There is, of course, the Matt Furie "Pepe the Frog" which should be protected. And, based on your previous legal work, it is in the sense of taking down the offending children's book “The Adventures of Pepe and Pede” that was a thinly-veiled anti-Islamic narrative directed at children. However, I am not creating works derived from Furie's original drawings. In no sense was I copying or modifying his original image, as I was completely unaware of its existence. Rather I was responding to the popular culture phenomenon referenced by the following videos:
Kek hasn't blessed this thread, so he must not favor you or your legal battle.
Samuel Johnson
===part 4===
This is not to say that ignorance of the copyright holders interest in a copyrighted work is sufficient to shield an offender from legal liability. However, this begs the question: Were Hillary Clinton and CNN referencing Furie's original work (“Boy’s Club”) when they addressed Pepe as an alt-right image or were they addressing a new line of artwork that was distinct from the Furie Pepe? Of course we all know she was not referencing the Furie Pepe. And as you now know my paintings parody / lampoon / criticize the conversation started by candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. I am participating in a political dialogue regarding what CNN calls a “white nationalist symbol” as opposed to “copying a character from Boy’s Club.”
By the time then-candidate Clinton gave her speech there were hundreds if not thousands of non-Furie “Pepe-esque” images circulating on the Internet. An argument could be made that these images were derivatives of Furie's work, but the infringement claim(s) would be difficult or impossible to substantiate under 17 U.S. Code §107 given the substantial degree to which the images are differentiable from Furie’s original work. Again, we are looking at the Cheshire Cat smiling down on us. Alternatively, to say that I have infringed on Furie's copyright is “a bridge too far” as the term “Pepe” has become too genericized to recapture.
I would like to point out that Matt Furie is pictured in a CNN interview wearing a “Pepe meme shirt” that clearly contains appropriated Pokemon imagery (I have attached it to this correspondence). This particular image can be easily linked to the alt-right, though Furie is wearing a cropped image that hides the more disturbing content. Does this make him a white supremacist? By your reasoning (guilt by association) I would have to say your client is promoting violence and bigotry. The tone you take with me in your letter certainly leads me to suspect that you are sympathetic to that mission.
Thank you for your understanding in this matter. As indicated, I have not violated Furie’s copyright in any meaningful way and clearly I have created artworks that are so distinct as to be considered original, or at the very least “sufficiently transformative” as per Kienitz v. Sconnie Nation LLC or “sufficiently parodical” as per Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. I am also participating in a political dialogue started by Hillary Clinton and President Donald Trump and sustained by CNN, CBS, ABC, BBC, etc. Given this set of facts and supporting case law I am sure you now consider the matter closed.
Please respond, as time is of the essence in these kinds of things.
Respectfully Yours,
___________________________ The Artist Jessica Logsdon
Joshua Jackson
Cite fair use. You are appropriating the image in question as a device of political satire.
Of course the court would not accept the proposition that analogue memes are a valid form of religious expression.
Originality or even bad copies are a form of political expression when thrust into the political arena. Or is that incorrect?
Camden Bell
>t. retarded plebbit kekistani To be honest, if this isn't an epic LARP, in that case you still deserve the (((You))), I wouldn't mind this autistic banter. Furie is basically autistically plebbit tier in his sperges, and he has no clue how far his shitty green frog maemae went. They don't even know about the poopoopeepee shit.
Jeremiah Nguyen
t.heretic
Blake Watson
>trying to make money off of other people's work
You're an idiot.
Grayson Cruz
If real: your paintings are unique pieces of art which happen to engage cultural imagery - and you can do anything. Warhol wasn't sued by Campbell, and Helnwein not by Disney. End of story.
Ryan Price
>Ms.
Tits or GTFO
Zachary Morgan
>is his intellectual property >implying drawing Pepe as a memefrog doesn't fall under fair use and parady laws
Tyler Phillips
It is real, I am real, and I am not profiting off of any sales. I make analogue memes. If you didn't steal your copy of photoshop you pair for it. I am asking the consumer of my version of memes to pay the shipping cost on $0.99 ebay auctions. For oil paintings.
I am participating in political speech; I am not seeking to profit only to pay the underlying cost of making memes.
This is political dialogue, and obviously it has been effective to some degree or else uptight law firms would not come sharking.
Brayden Brown
Kek and Meme Magic are both real. You don't go around yelling at religious people all day telling them their faith isn't real. Suck a dick.
Matthew Turner
This is your best bet.
The kek religion has to be acknowledged and approved by the courts before you can claim the shit you intentionally said.
What this user said is your 100% best bet, if you're telling the truth.
Eli Thompson
>Matt Furie is Suing Me for Painting Pepe Furie is full of shit. Pepe has changed by more than 10% since his inception. The Pepe you paint is not his Pepe, and you can't copyright a common name.
Jaxon Rivera
You're my favorite autist outside of Finland. Marry me and let us infringe on all things copyright and sexual decency.
Brayden Butler
>making money off someone else's intellectual properts (in this case Pepe the frog) >actually making money
How utterly Jewish. Don't expect sympathies from us here.
Landon Barnes
Hello Jessica of Kansas City. Can I come over?
Joshua Gray
Either Pepe isn't the same frog, or they are one and the same and he's trying to keep copyright on an official hate symbol.
Alexander Brown
bump for fuck Matt Furie.
Parker Cook
You're not getting sued for painting it. You can not be sued for that within the United states of America.
You're getting sued for trying to monetize somebody else's intellectual property.
You are far too stupid to fight this, and you are too arrogant for the concept of alleviating your own ignorance to even occur to you. This is a dreadful combination of character flaws, and will lead you to ruin if you don't manage yourself.
You are going to get absolutely bodied in court. You need to get a lawyer, a real lawyer, and mitigate the damage as much as possible.
And for the love of god do not argue with the lawyer about what you think is and isn't right, I promise that he did not make any of the laws, just fucking listen for once, this is serious.
Isaiah Cox
I just roughed this in.
Nathaniel Johnson
fukkin saved
Juan Howard
also, Jessica LOGSdon.
Kayden Allen
Go back to Sup Forums.
Christopher Peterson
I'm gonna come visit and give u a kiss on the lips :D
Christian Scott
>you can't be sued for noncommercial copyright violation on the US
You don't know a fucking thing about American IP law.
Asher Nelson
You didn't get served, it's a cease and desist. Nobody's trampling your rights, matter of fact you're in the wrong here and you're actually hurting "his rights" by using his intellectual property with no permission. I hope you eventually get sued because people like you are worse than niggers.
John Morales
OF course people come over all the time! I operate an urban farm. I sell jam, jelly and smudge sticks.
I am simple, poor, make no money. I was able to buy some land because it is considered a danger zone. I live a few blocks from the 4th most dangerous intersection in America (Prospect and Independence Avenue, KCMO biotches).
I live hood, and hard, flakka zombies and scrappers. But I am also a meme maker.
Wyatt Miller
Just tell his lawyer you're copying an Internet meme and that they should go after whomever copied the Pepe originally. You're only copying that Pepe.
Parker Bailey
i'd cease and desist. just do what he says, i dont think you have any ground to stand on. It'd be like if you were painting mickey and selling those paintings and disney told you to take it down. its not your property (even though i like the paintings DESU)
Brayden Lee
your only hope is if he sperged out and registered it as a copyright after you had done your business. else you are fucked and you deserve to be so for profiting off of spreading the cancerous meme that is kekistan
Bentley Moore
This
OP stop being a fucking idiot. And never say the word "kekistan" again you absolute retard.
Jonathan Moore
tits or gtfo you know the rules
Thomas Peterson
It's fully lawful parody they have nothing
Jaxson Price
No real lawyer would write shit like "Pepe is a frog of peace"
Fucking LARPer
Joseph Diaz
>Kekistani
I hope you get sued into poverty
Benjamin Long
nigga the strongest thing you can do is point out that the "pepe" he created has no relation to the "pepe" that you're using, and is so far derrivative that it's not the same content.
Carter Rogers
Making money off of a meme is the glittering pinnacle of normalfaggotry
Asher Anderson
Does it actually say on the works its pepe?
Your drawing is a frog named pepé. Any similarities is purely coincidence
Ian Robinson
LOL I totally called you being a fucking nigger.
Parker Moore
Fuck off with this horse shit. Pepe wasn't copyrighted.
Grayson Mitchell
HOT DICKINGS!
Colton Parker
How did he become such an absolute faggot? He seemed chill about the Pepe memes before the election.
Sebastian Price
DESU I might be retarded but I don't really understand how this shit works so to speak? what's to stop you from just... not taking it down? and if someone DOES take it down, what's stopping you from just... putting it back up?
Logan Jackson
This. Literally say nothing other than "talk to my lawyer who is such and such" you fucking retard. Your smarmy reply is terrible and will hurt you.
Jaxon Miller
He could absolutely paint as many private use renditions as he wishes, provided it can't be reasonably argued that he is benefiting or advertising in any way.
The Seven Dwarves inside of a daycare that otherwise has nothing to do with the IP: Fine. The Seven Dwarves on the outside of the daycare? Actionable.
Jason Hernandez
Yeah p much, fair use as political parody, he doesn't even own the rights to the meme, just the "name" and the "character" just say it's a coincidence, make the skin tone slightly darker, and change his name to epep at the most if anything and there is nothing he can do.
Matthew Perez
I actually went and looked at her paintings. At least one of them is basically a trace of one of the strips Furie was commissioned to do by the ADL
This woman is a plagiarist and is going to be financially gangraped. Someone pop some popcorn
Austin Lopez
if you are selling images of pepe and pepe is copyrighted by matt furie then you can't sell them if he did not give you permission. you can draw and distribute images of pepe and do pretty much everything you want as long as you don't make money off of pepe.
Luis Reyes
I'm quite sure that he won't sue you, and you would probably get your legal fees paid for at that point, via crowdfunding.
What I'm really asking here is... Do you have a Youtube Channel and are you an 'actress'?
Jackson Miller
Because the left has created a situation where if you do nothing because you don't care you are a nazi. We have reached a point where you have to prove publicly you're not a nazi. Thats if you care about that shit in the first place. I mean trump got slammed in the media for not disavowing ENOUGH...
Thomas Young
>We all know that KEK is real, that meme magic is real, and that the Old Order is extremely threatened by the manifestation of KEK in the modern world. Wtf is this cancer? Go watch more sargon videos you fucking faggot.
Tyler Flores
rofl.. ur fucked if true. da juice found yer stash.. bumperino
Connor Nelson
I'm not a lawyer, but I work in publishing and deal with this stuff daily.
From Wikipedia on "Fair Use" "In Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music Inc[7] the U.S. Supreme Court recognized parody as a potential fair use, even when done for profit.....The Campbell court ... distinguished parodies from satire, which they described as a broader social critique not intrinsically tied to ridicule of a specific work and so not deserving of the same use exceptions as parody because the satirist's ideas are capable of expression without the use of the other particular work."
If you stop profiting from the work, they will not come after you.
If you want to keep profiting, they may still decide you're not worth a lawsuit unless you're making >$50k/year.
You should contact Marc Randazza. He's an outspoken 1st amendment attorney who loves cases like this. He'll talk to you about your options at the very least, free of charge. He helped me with a Facebook lawsuit once and I've always respected his opinion after that.
Eli Rivera
If I post a digital image then there is no consequence, however if I post an analogue image then I am violating copyright?
Where does copyright begin and end, in terms of derivatives? I only learned of Pepe through the political news. I only knew Trump-related Pepes.
I attempted to explain that there is a scope that covers Furie's Pepe and then another scope that voers teh political dialogue landscape, and that to enforce *his copyright* would deny a much larger conversation from occurring.
They start with analogue memes, and then they will come for your digital memes.
Chaos is a form of *change* and generally though not always results with some form of order emerging.
Ancient hive mind mapped what some call KEK. I ran into Pepe as a result of KEK being a sign in the mind (shared mind) of Sup Forums
Christopher Foster
>im a meme maker You're a fucking nobody. Maldraw made pic related in 2015 and started the whole pepe kekistani shit.
Julian Lopez
>I only learned of Pepe through the political news Me too. Would be my go to position. Ive never heard of that "so-called" client of theirs... just sayin famalam...
Eli Ward
Oh sweetie, if you don't understand freedom of religion then you should shut the fuck up.
Christian Allen
Read the letter, retard. She's selling oil painting of Pepe on her website. That doesn't fall under fair use.
Hunter Hughes
Religion is recognized if a certain amount claim it on the national census.
seeyou can't make money off of someone else' s intellectual property, no one owns the meme I just posted, and I didn't make any money off of it so even if they did they cant go after me.
Benjamin Long
This.
Jonathan Phillips
>google image search thumbnail >22 million results goddamn this one oc fucked up the entire world.
Jordan Reyes
>>Where does copyright begin and end, in terms of derivatives? If you don't know, perhaps you shouldn't be selling copies of other people's artwork.
Lincoln Collins
FUCK YOU, OP.
THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR BEING A NAMEFAG, REDDIT
THIS IS WHAT YOU GET FOR TRYING TO MAKE MONEY OFF THE MEMES OF A MONGOLIAN CERAMICS BOARD
William Reed
you are who again?
Dominic Foster
Pepe is stoner from the boys club comic
Pepe THE FROG is a mischievous smug frog with a human friend named Wojak
They don't even look the same.
Sebastian Collins
Why this moron who thinks he owns pepe isn't being spammed with poopoo peepee pepes is disgraceful
Aiden Jones
fight it.
he failed to defend copyright on the character for 10 years, and even owns bootleg merchandise, which makes a pretty good defense in the case of "intent" of Furie to release copyright.
Jaxon Barnes
>She's selling oil painting of Pepe on her website. That doesn't fall under fair use. You're wrong. You can still profit under Fair Use law from satire.
She needs to talk to a lawyer.. Not you mouth-breathing morons who dropped out of high school after your step dad raped you and your mother got you out of that situation by taking you to her brother's farm in another state.
Nathan Rivera
Holy shit, Matt Furrie is such a faggot
Daniel Sanders
You're fucked if you're selling him unedited. But to all pepe users out there who want to use him for animations/comics - it is easy, and all you have to do is parody him.
David Watson
Sup Forums isn't your personal army.
Robert Foster
That's not how copyright works.
Levi King
wow what an asshole
Grayson Clark
Parody is protected under 1st amendment rights.
Although the selling part might cause some problems.
Ayden Lopez
I think you have to choose between using it as "fair use" or as substantially different "Hillary Clinton's enemy" frog. One or other.
Zachary Hernandez
you fucking idiot if we memed johnny bravo and made it into bravotani doesnt mean you can sell oil paintings of johnny bravo without the permission of CN. Learn how copyright works youre free to distribute shit for free but its go time when you make money off it.
dumbass hick bitch
Blake Morgan
I absolutely will support any petition formed wanting to recognize belief in kek as a real deity
This is as real to me as any other religious stuff
Elijah Young
Someone please post some genuinely rare pepes in this thread NOW.
OP must post some of hers. Pepes or GTFO roastie.
Dylan Bell
...
Samuel Wood
I was not painting Pepe's to make $$$, at all. I can show with receipts and all tracked expenses that it *costs me money* to "sell my memes." I lose money, just like every other meme maker who pays for the internet access he or she uses to post meme content. I was not on social media so I was "selling" my art at $0.99 plus shipping cost in order to reach an audience. The end user pays for internet the same way an analogue meme consumer pays for shipping. There is no profit, but there is a minimum entry on e-bay of $0.99. AND I never sold a painting for more than $0.99 as proven by ebay records. I have never sold a painting from my website.
I came here to discuss meme magic; magic is always presented to the mind as an ignorance for how something actually operates. One must *learn" the methods to know how the card tricks are done.
It is the same as what you are doing, it just requires a internet connection. You do not pay for the internet connection that a user is buying in order to view your meme. The end user *consumes* internet in the same way a purchaser "moves a painting in the pipe" by paying for shipping.
Everyone is spending money no one is making money. Perfect system. Leads invariably to usury, right?
Noah Bailey
It's called genericide. Look it up in relation to trademark law--it probably would work.
