My brother dropped a truth bomb about reposting old memes without credit

So my brother saw me grab a cleaned-up version of that 'distracted boyfriend' format and said 'you know the original creator was a random guy in the UK who never got paid for it.' He showed me the guy's tweet from 7 years ago and I felt kinda lousy for just assuming memes were free game. Does anyone else think about where the format actually came from when you remix it?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavin_allen4817d ago

Idk man, next thing you'll tell me I gotta track down the guy who took the first "this is fine" dog photo and send him a royalty check. Maybe we just pretend memes spawn from the void to avoid the guilt.

lane.drew16d ago

Three years ago I spent an entire afternoon trying to find the guy who took the "distracted boyfriend" meme so I could apologize for using it in a work presentation. Got three emails deep into some stock photo agency's support chain before I gave up and accepted my guilt. Now I just assume every meme is actually a void-dwelling entity that feeds on our likes and shares and that's easier on my conscience. The "this is fine" dog probably has a nice retirement fund from royalties if we're being honest. Meanwhile I'm out here with a folder of memes I've downloaded that I'm too afraid to delete in case the internet police show up at my door.