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'Memes Have Rights Too': Grumpy Cat Wins $710,000 In Copyright Lawsuit (thewrap.com)
Zorro shares a report from TheWrap: The Grumpy Cat Limited company was awarded $710,001 in damages on Monday when a California jury decided that the beverage company Grenade was guilty of infringing on its copyright and trademark. Grumpy Cat Limited, formed by Tabatha Bundesen to monetize the viral fame of her sour-faced cat (real name, Tardar Sauce), sued Grenade in 2015, claiming the company used the cat's image on several of its products, despite only having the rights to sell a line of iced coffees called "Grumpy Cat Grumppuccino." The Grumpy Cat image appeared on Grenade's roasted coffee line and tee-shirts, neither of which were part of the original deal. Grenade filed its own countersuit, claiming Grumpy Cat didn't hold up its end of the bargain and failed to promote the brand as outlined under the terms of the deal. However, the jury wasn't moved by its argument and ultimately decided in favor of the meme. "It's important precedent when you have something like a meme online," David Jonelis of Lavely & Singer, Grumpy Cat's lawyer, told TheWrap. "It's the first verdict ever rendered in favor of a viral meme. Memes have rights too."
I'm failing to see the link between a lawsuit over contract violation and "memes having rights". I'm unsure whether the lawyer is an idiot, or just knows that making outrageous statements will grab headlines. Probably the later, and Slashdot apparently fell for it hook line and sinker.
Oh wait, who do we have to pay for violating the rights of the "hook line and sinker" meme?
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
It's okay, we're switching to Pissed Off Cat
Table-ized A.I.
Copyrights need the same "commonly used" self-destruct clause trademarks have.
Since I cannot so it, you will have to imagine it...
"Insert meme .jpg of Grumpy Cat with the word "Good!" in a bold Inpact font at the bottom in white."
She's a cat.
Trademarking a likeness is no different to producing a human-celebrity endorsed cologne.
Sorry, PRESIDENT.
The privilege to steal money without having to work in return, thanks to artificial scarcity in an imaginary monopoly.
I should put my money on the copier, add "specimen", tack on a license, call it my "financial property", and demand everyone to accept my fake bills or be sued for five trillion dollars and be called a "seafaring rapist thug". Because... you know... I WORKED HARD FOR THAT MONEY!
So if all I get, is a worthless mere copy, then all I will pay with, is also a worthless mere copy. I worked just as hard for the original money as somebody worked hard for the original work. And it just as much is irrelevant, now is it?
The Company is not the same thing as the meme.
$710,000 or $710,001? Dollars have rights too!
I mean, how could you be grumpy after just having won the internet! (+/- 710,000$) :-D
So, I can't tell if they're just really dumb and don't know how to spell, or if they're making a kind of tasteless joke, but either way, that's got to be about the worst name for a cat that I've ever heard.
The Quirkz Handbook of Self-Improvement for People Who Are Already Pretty Okay
Isn't the trademark already diluted by being replicated and used by lots of people, without any mention that it's protected?
I have about $360k in the bank.
The main difference is that I fucking worked my ass off for 22 years for it, by saving $10k/year and rolling interest and stocks into it.
First the blacks, then women, and now this shit?
It don’t touches my sphaget!
Corporations have human rights. They have the right to donate as much money as they want to politicians to shape policy. There is very little doubt this is tax deductible, you tax dollars paying to undermine democracy.
That's why the cat is so damn grumpy.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
No, the initial name was "tard" as in "retard" but later was changed to "tardar sauce" due to people raising eyebrow at the initial name. Frankly I am betting that's just for documentation and get ride of pestering idiot, and the cat is/was still called tard privately.
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A picture of a cat with a genetic deformity caused by generations of purebred inbreeding is worth more than most people will earn in a lifetime.
Bring on the meteor. There is no intelligent life here.
Surely trademark?
Lottery winners have a great work-payout ratio, they are smarter.
Actually being born with money makes you the smartest, like a really stable genius.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
paradox now, does this make Grumpy Cat happy?
Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat would beg to disagree.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelli...
I suppose one could argue that the above was not a "verdict" since both parties "reached an agreement", but I'd still argue that standard copyright/trademark protection isn't anything new in the world of memes.
Lawsuits like that are nothing new, plenty of other meme-related owners or authors have been involved in successful lawsuits.
But the Grumpy Cat case is certainly an exception ammong viral memes... a brand, full blown company with big celebrity-like apparatus was built quickly after initial explosive success. Can't blame them for doing so, they took the opportunity and went with it.
Most memes don't exploit this as well as they did.