After being hijacked by the alt-right as a symbol of white supremacy, the creator of Pepe the Frog is hitting back with the The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to put a stop to the misuse of his character.
Matt Furie created Pepe back in 2005 as part of his comic, Boy’s Club #1. He became a meme via his catchphrase, “feels good man,” referencing his love for pissing with his pants around his ankles.
Unfortunately, a number of websites aligned with the alt-right movement were using the character as a mascot for their hateful bullshit, including white nationalist Richard Spencer and his website, Altright.com. Furie’s legal team are currently issuing DMCA takedowns to anyone using Pepe in such a way.
The team also sued the author of a children’s book which used a Pepe-esque character in its illustrations to peddle a thinly veiled anti-islamic message. They ended up reaching a settlement with all the proceeds going to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
When first noticed the meme being used by the alt-right, Furie originally said he would allow it to run its course, but when the hate didn’t stop, he attempted to rebrand it as a “force for good”. He later killed the character off but obviously, it had little effect. When all else fails, hit ’em with the lawyers.
His legal team told Motherboard they promised to “make sure that no one profits by using Pepe in alt-right propaganda.”
Similarly, the creators of indie game Firewatch took similar action recently when popular YouTuber PewDiePie called an opponent the N-word during a stream.
While many of the pages could argue that they’re using the character under fair use rules and take the case to court, lawyer Louis Tompros is hoping the threats will simply deter people from even bothering with the symbol.
“I’m hopeful we’ll reach a place where this stops, where the alt-right realises it’s too much trouble dealing with us to be misappropriating this character and they move on,” he said.
As the Dead Kennedys would say – Nazi punks, fuck off.
