{"id":3880,"date":"2016-02-03T12:23:05","date_gmt":"2016-02-03T16:23:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ncjolt.org\/?p=3880"},"modified":"2020-06-04T20:53:32","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T20:53:32","slug":"revenge-of-the-memes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/blogs\/revenge-of-the-memes\/","title":{"rendered":"Revenge of the Memes"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you use social media, you\u2019re familiar with memes.\u00a0 Even if you don\u2019t know what a meme is, you scroll by them every day on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites and apps.\u00a0 Webster\u2019s dictionary defines \u201cmeme<\/a>\u201d as \u201can idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.\u201d\u00a0 The more culturally relevant and commonly used \u201cmeme<\/a>\u201d is an internet meme, which is an image of a person or animal with a funny or witty caption that spreads through social media sites like wildfire and reaches millions of people all over the country, and even the world.
\nFor example, you may have seen the \u201cSide Eyeing Chloe<\/a>\u201d meme – a picture of a little girl in her car seat making a concerned face.\u00a0 The story behind the picture is that Chloe\u2019s parents surprised their two daughters, Lily and Chloe, with a surprise trip to Disneyland.\u00a0 Lily reacts with tears and excitement, while Chloe looks unenthused.\u00a0 The parents uploaded the video<\/a> to YouTube, and now, two years later, the video has more than 13 million views.\u00a0 Chloe\u2019s hilarious facial reaction to her older sister\u2019s excitement can be found all over the internet now, photoshopped into other iconic photos such as the Mona Lisa and onto celebrities\u2019 bodies.\u00a0 As a matter of fact, there was a 2013 Buzzfeed article<\/a> by now-famous Buzzfeed personality, Matt Bellasai, compiling all of the memes Chloe\u2019s face had become.\u00a0 Chloe\u2019s parents have been good sports with their young daughter\u2019s internet fame, but many other people who have become memes – some call them Living Memes<\/a> – do not have the same \u201cit\u2019s all fun and games\u201d reaction to their face going viral.
\nIn late January, news broke that Dancing With The Stars <\/em>dancing professional Val Chmerkovskiy was being sued<\/a> by a \u201cliving meme,\u201d whose picture he shared to his Facebook with a caption saying, \u201cLetting your kid become obese should be considered child abuse.\u201d\u00a0 The girl is seen drinking a soda, and it has been revealed that she has Down syndrome, although Chmerkovskiy did not mention this in his post, and it\u2019s unclear if he was aware of this.\u00a0 Even though Chmerkovskiy wasn\u2019t the photographer who snapped the picture or the person who created the meme<\/a> more than a year ago, the parents who filed the lawsuit<\/a> are most concerned with the over 350,000 followers Chmerkovskiy \u201cshared\u201d the photo to.\u00a0 They have also named CBS, who shared the post, and the original photographer as defendants.
\nChmerkovskiy\u2019s lawsuit isn\u2019t the first claim by a living meme.\u00a0 One of the first living memes is known as \u201cStar Wars Kid,\u201d<\/a> who, ten years ago, made a private video of himself clumsily swinging around a homemade lightsaber, which was uploaded to the internet by classmates.\u00a0 The \u201cStar Wars Kid\u201d and his family brought a lawsuit<\/a> against the four classmates who posted the video online, and the parties eventually settled<\/a> outside of court for an undisclosed amount.
\nSo far, U.S. judges haven\u2019t decided a case regarding these living memes, but it seems that more<\/a> of these cases<\/a> are hitting the courts as memes on social media become more prevalent.\u00a0 Until we know how the court will treat these lawsuits, be careful who you meme and what you share (if you have hundreds of thousands of followers).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you use social media, you\u2019re familiar with memes.\u00a0 Even if you don\u2019t know what a meme is, you scroll by them every day on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and other sites and apps.\u00a0 Webster\u2019s dictionary defines \u201cmeme\u201d as \u201can idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.\u201d\u00a0 The more …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3881,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[51],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3880"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7252,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3880\/revisions\/7252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.unc.edu\/ncjolt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}