Forums / Discussion / Q & A

From time to time, Know Your Meme receives cease and desist letters from copyright holders asking us to remove their images from our database. This thread will be mainly used to keep track of the cease & desist records and our entries that are affected as a result.

KYM Entries That Have Been Modified in Compliance with DMCA:

• Gorgeous George Show / removed on April 25th, 2011

• Scumbag Stacy / Images removed on July 6th, 2011

• Good Girl Gina / Images removed on March 8th, 2012

• Tom Preston / Images removed on April 18th, 2012

• Sheltered College Freshman / Images removed on May 9th, 2012

• Someecards.com / Images removed on August 24th, 2012

• OCD Otter / Images removed on February 25th, 2013

• Roy Cap Philipose / removed on June 23rd, 2014

• Dan Schneider / removed on March 24th, 2017

• JoshCube / removed on May 5th, 2017

KYM Image Uploads That Have Been Removed in Compliance with DMCA:

• Hurr Durr Horse & Duplicate removed on January 14th, 2013

• A Picture of Zucchini removed on January 21st, 2013

• Derp removed on February 27th, 2013

• Dafuq removed on November 20th, 2013

• Yakety Sax on February 27th, 2014

• Haters Gonna Hate removed on May 27th, 2014

• Fire Emblem (#1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7) removed on June 2nd, 2014

• Special Feeling removed on June 2nd, 2014

• Cthulu fan art removed on July 3rd, 2014

• Fire Emblem Comic removed on August 5th, 2014 per request from the original author.

• Amanda Byne's Photo removed on August 28th, 2014

• Has Science Gone Too Far removed on December 31st, 2014

• Slenderman Fan Art removed on September 15th, 2015

• Scumbag Steve (#1 / #2) removed on January 14th, 2016

• Amanda Todd Bleach Poster / removed on May 5th, 2017

• Far Side / image uploads disabled on May 28th, 2021

What do you have to do about the thumbnail? Every entry needs one.

Well, that's also a way to deal with internet fame.

Inb4 Potatogirl

So, to clarify, this is only images that violate copywrite, correct?
It's a shame we don't have the financial security to risk disputing these things. For example, the Tom Preston one doesn't violate any copyrights. He wouldn't have a case; the images in our gallery fall under parody and therefore qualify as fair use.
We need to find someone who gives free or cheep legal advice; for the sake of the database we really can't let this become an issue.

Edit: Are we allowed to discuss here, or should I make another thread? Sorry.

I think this might be in light of these take-downs, but I just noticed a new button in all images -

which leads to a new contact page

Though this page isn't specific to the image, it can be used to contact for copyright issues. I hope that we don't have to take down content as a result but merely source the author but that seems unlikely.

Regardless, I'm more optimistic than pessimistic about this being used for users to get in contact outside of the "Suggest a change" button on entries.

This thread should be stickied.

Agreed. Why it wasn't a sticky to begin with is beyond me.

Don't tell me what to do. >:(

Thanks, Chris. We've got some more tasks for you to do when you have a moment. We're gonna need you to come in tomorrow and, um, find us a copyright lawyer. And then, well, I'm also gonna need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday, too, and do some image cleanup for the database, okay?

So… if you could just get to that as soon as possible, that would be terrific.

Well as good as this is for us let's remember not to abuse this as a website and turn into the copyright shitstorm that is now youtube.

I support what I said upstairs. Very good point.

Tom Preston is just butthurt because of his CattyN gallery is uploaded and he wants to pretend he wasn't CattyN.

Bumping this thread for Someecards.com DMCA takedown notice.

The entry's gallery is now locked, but please don't upload any more someecards or yourecards content to anywhere else on the site.

Sucks how some people can't just take things in stride and have to get legally butthurt about people just having a good time.

Sometimes, you have to do your copyright justice and defend it when there are potential violations.

Otherwise, you can lose your right to the material. I really don't think they'd care too much otherwise. And besides, if it's your content, then it's your prerogative to legally defend it as you see fit. I have no problem with it, actually.

PRESSURE – we're under it.

Well jeez, that's just… Well… Lame.

I was completely unaware such a thing existed. I should probably use the forums more.

So if we were going to upload a specific image to another page, could we? Or are all instances of images relating to the C&D article to be withheld from the site? For instance I was about to upload this to the The Casting Couch entry, but Scumbag Stacy is C&D.

DCMA, one way to shut down a meme.

I discovered that Sakimichan's art is removed from image boorus such as Danbooru due to being one of the "artists who have requested their works to not be uploaded to Danbooru."

I was thinking that if a fan art hosting site has removed that content, should we not be doing the same, even if we've received no formal request? The artist in question does charge for some of their works via a Patreon, so I'm just a bit concerned about how this could all play out and what KYM's policy on this type of situation is/should be.

If the artist clearly isn’t up for having their artwork uploaded on other sites, then the polite thing to do would be to assume that they would not like their work on other sites either.

Can never be too sure though, maybe we should contact Sakimichan and ask the question? Double check if they’d prefer all of their art to be exclusive to the pages they own, or if they don’t want their work on just Danbooru in particular.
I’m expecting them being sure that they don’t want their art anywhere else, but i’m almost certain that there is at least one user preparing for a mass Sakimichan image upload for the entry, so it’s worth checking

Isn't that kind of hypocritical? "Requesting" fan art to be removed from sites but creating fan art at the same time.

Not necessarily from a legal standpoint. For example, Diives is OK with having most of his fanart reposted – namely, the ones tagged as "released", while making the unreleased work his way of earning money via Patreon. Sakimichan may have a different business model, since her work usually takes much longer to be released.

Do remember, as well, that we are talking about professional artists here, not just some random fan artist. They actually do this for a living, studied several years and are credited with official studies and skills relevant to their trade. This is their job. We cannot really fault them for wanting to protect it.

They're not consistent in their adherence to copyright. They would be if they wouldn't draw fanart.

Well, KYM is not cosistent in their adherence to NSFW rules, so, par for the course, if anything.

Semi-jokes aside, the point is that risking copyright claims is not a good move, which is why contacting the artist, if possible, is a prudent and responsible suggestion.

Its hilarious. These people complain about people "stealing their art", yet they have no problem stealing characters themselves. I hate people who sell nothing but fan art.

If we're going to discuss artists' reactions to their art being passed around, make a seperate thread please. Keep this thread about C&Ds that concern this site please.

Hey, OP, you spelled Cthulhu wrong… just FYI.