Infowars sued by cartoon frog creator over poster
Conspiracy theorist website Infowars is being sued by the creator of the ‘Pepe the Frog’ cartoon for copyright infringement.
‘Pepe the Frog’ is an anthropomorphic cartoon frog created by California-based individual Matt Furie in the early 2000s. His creation found internet fame by 2014.
The claim, filed on Monday, March 5 at the US District Court for the Central District of California, alleged that the defendant misappropriated the use of ‘Pepe the Frog’, including via the frog’s inclusion on a poster for sale on the website infowars.com.
According to the claim, infowars.com “published what various sources deem to be ‘fake news’”.
The poster features Pepe alongside Conservative figures in the US public eye, including Infowars founder Alex Jones, US President Donald Trump, and political commentator Milo Yiannopoulos.
Underneath the poster is the text “MAGA”—taken from Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again”.
Furie said that Pepe was created as a “peaceful frog-dude” known for his catchphrase “feels food man”.
The claim alleged that by 2015, several ‘alt-right’ fringe groups mixed Pepe with images of hate, including alongside “white supremacist language and symbols, Nazi symbols, and other offensive imagery”. However, the claim did not accuse Infowars of representing Pepe with such imagery.
Furie collaborated with the Anti-Defamation League on the #SavePepe campaign to restore the cartoon frog’s image of “peace, togetherness, and fun”.
In an effort to disassociate his creation with the ‘alt-right’, Furie even published an online comic in which he killed off Pepe.
But despite his attempts, Furie alleged that the defendant has misused Pepe and copied images of him in products sold online to “promote messages of hate”.
The claim said that Furie is the sole copyright owner of his creation. Furthermore, he did not authorise the use of his character in the poster and “does not approve of the association of Pepe with Alex Jones or any of the other figures shown in this poster, or with the ‘MAGA’ slogan”.
Furie is seeking damages and a permanent injunction against Infowars preventing it from copying or distributing unauthorised copies of ‘Pepe the Frog’.
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