Sometimes I see people complaining about others stealing their memes and not giving credit or putting a watermark on it. What is your feeling about this?
credit where credit is due12.5%
memes are meant to be free87.5%
16 votes \ poll ended
pull down to refresh
204 sats \ 1 reply \ @nichro 3 Jul
The nature of memes make them meant to be free.
This is a pre-internet era meme:
No one knows who started the trend, but even if we did, if people didn't copy and repeat it, sharing on bathroom stalls and notebooks instead of Twitter and Facebook, then it would have just gone away. The (almost subconscious) urge to share and copy it is what made it the meme it is.
If a meme author is insisting on credit, then it was probably a forced meme, to which my ancient tribe would say: SAGE
reply
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby OP 3 Jul
Your ancient tribe is wise.
reply
102 sats \ 1 reply \ @nout 3 Jul
Meme is by definition something that's shared, copied, modified. Maybe you are thinking of "a picture"?
Put differently - sharing, copying and modifying is what causes a picture to become meme.
reply
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby OP 4 Jul
No, I definitely see people online complaining when another person or business uses "their" meme. I don't think it looks good.
reply
102 sats \ 0 replies \ @SwapMarket 3 Jul
Memes are graphical jokes. Jokes are meant to spread freely.
reply
102 sats \ 0 replies \ @carter 3 Jul
I just hate when they censor words for facebook
reply
102 sats \ 1 reply \ @BITC0IN 3 Jul
degrades the meme strength
reply
0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby OP 3 Jul
Yes.
reply
102 sats \ 3 replies \ @SimpleStacker 3 Jul
Meme origins are usually so shadowy that I don't know if it's possible to accurately give credit to their creators. And if you try to establish a whole infrastructure to do that, it would defeat the fun and purpose of memes.
reply
30 sats \ 2 replies \ @Scoresby OP 3 Jul
I often wonder how the person who first created the meme feels. Are they proud? When they see hugely popular accounts reposting it do they wish everyone knew it was them?
reply
102 sats \ 1 reply \ @SimpleStacker 3 Jul
I remember the NY Times interviewed the girl behind the "disaster girl" meme. It was a pretty fascinating dive into what it feels like to become a meme. https://archive.ph/OKXjn
I also wonder what celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio feel about their images being used all over the world for meming. It's probably a net benefit for their careers in terms of staying relevant.
reply
30 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby OP 3 Jul
Yeah, for the celebs it probably just feels like marketing. I'm sure some of them are intentional.
Being the subject of a meme is a whole other level.
reply
102 sats \ 7 replies \ @deSign_r 3 Jul
open source everything
reply
152 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 3 Jul
forks of OSS usually acknowledge the original source
reply
102 sats \ 0 replies \ @deSign_r 3 Jul
Credits different from acknowledgment or references.
- Credits is a professional practice or contractual obligation for attribution. Expected from those making use of the source
- Acknowledgments are more about gratitude for indirect support, mentorship, funding, emotional encouragement. Not required or expected from the creator
- References are similar to acknowledgments, more syntetic and coincise and used explicitly in public academic environment.
reply
0 sats \ 4 replies \ @Scoresby OP 3 Jul
my sensation is that credit isn't the same as open source, but I agree with what I think you are expressing: memes are not meant to be credited.
reply
102 sats \ 3 replies \ @deSign_r 3 Jul
yes correct, I think you meant acknowledgement or referencing the source more than credit (creator must have specified the credit request from the use of the good)
Maybe @Kontext knows better
reply
102 sats \ 2 replies \ @Kontext 3 Jul
I agree with @SimpleStacker in general:
Open source everything, for sure, but I'm also a fan of crediting / acknowledgements. If I know who the author of the meme is, I usually try to credit them or simply repost their original post. Memes are usually nothing more than reposts anyway.
I'm flattered to see my memes out in the wild, but I do usually watermark them nowadays due to the fact that neither crediting nor acknowledgements (as per your definitions) are not common practices within this realm.
reply
10 sats \ 1 reply \ @Scoresby OP 3 Jul
This gets to the real core of my question: is there something about a meme (as opposed to an article or an idea or an artwork) that is better when it is watermark-free and allowed to morph in society?
Symbols are one thing: the cross, the dollar sign, even the concept of the hashtag...these things are used and obviously credit isn't needed every time they show up.
Artwork is more complex than a meme, I think. Something like Starry Night or View of Toledo is clearly something that should be credited -- although when people riff on them...like a mona lisa with a mustache it becomes less important maybe?
Memes are in between: they more expressive than a symbol and can be used in a wider range of contexts, but things like the midwit meme or laser eyes or rick rolling feel like they lose something if they have attributions on them. It's almost like memes need to have the attribution stripped from them in order to really succeed.
It's a tricky line. I usually put a pretty obvious whale 🐋 on my bitcoin movie posters, the more meme-like images I make I try to find an excuse to work my whale or scoresby into it in some slightly subtle way if I'm going to watermark it. But honestly, I don't know that I can claim my images are meme-level.
reply
102 sats \ 0 replies \ @deSign_r 4 Jul
I think it simply ends up being about the creator's ego... does the creator want to be credited or recogized? if yes, should take care of placing a watermark or sign the piece accordingly, depending on what it is. If not, public domain.
True is that signed pieces are, for some weird reason, valuable.
reply