COPYRIGHT LAW

Copyright infringement is a serious crime punishable by law. Don't get carried away using another person's material just to get a few laughs and shares on the internet.

A baby is making a big-eyes expression looking sharply away from the camera. Above the picture, a MEME says " My mom owns this picture, know what I meme?" It is meant to be a play on words.

Created by Caroline Estes and is copyrighted CC - BY-NC-NB Divine Designs by Caroline

This meme intends to send the message that we can breach and infringe copyright at any moment when generating quirky content with material designed by another entity.

The creator of this MEME also created the person in the MEME and the image of the person in the MEME. Not one aspect of this image can be claimed by another entity that Caroline Estes infringed on Copyright law when designing this MEME. This MEME is also protected under copyright as an entity of DivineDesignsbyCaroline CC 2014 through the United States Federal Government. Anything Caroline creates under her artist's copyright from 2014 to the present belongs to the artist.

Plainly, if you did not create the original body of work, you need to ask permission from the brand or individual who created and owns it. Otherwise, you are infringing copyright law.

FAIR USE

This is a picture of a very smiliey bearded man who is a father. He is holding up miniature tools with a look of satisfaction and excitement. On top of the image it says "This is a dad meme. Mom made fair use". The picture aims to visually define Fair use copyright laws.

Created by Caroline Estes Copy Righted CC-BY-NC

What is Fair Use, and how does it apply to the sharing of creative content through MEMEs?
Fair use can be used to justify the use of copyrighted material when the material is being used for education, parody, news reporting, and critical review. This MEME is created from an image owned by the artist. The purpose of using my own content, an adorable/awkward picture of my husband, to display fair use is a tad on the ironic side. It also shows, that if someone creates a MEME from my image with a completely different spin on things, they will be able to justify use of my image through Fair Use agreements.

COMMON USE

Created by Caroline Estes and is copyrighted CC BY-NC Divine Designs by Caroline

Creative Commons describes a simple and straight forward way for creatives to grant copyright permissions on their work using a common license agreement. It is a nonprofit group that offers creative content and information through free legal tools for public and private use(Cooper, 2016). Artists wanted their work to be shared, so they figured out a legal way to get credit, while still giving permission for others to share.

MEMES Times: Projects

MEME TIMES

Created by the General Public

MEMES Times: Gallery

REFERENCES

Cooper, M. (2016, January). How to Use Content that Isn't Yours. Content Marketing Institute. https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2016/01/how-use-content-yours/ (Links to an external site.)

MEMES Times: Text