Stealing a meme
There's a concept I'll never wrap my head around.
this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025
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when it's literally the way of how memes propagate; yeah I don't get it either.
Memes are copied and shared, not stolen. You can't steal digital images or ideas.
You can't steal digital images or ideas
Copyright law is in shambles
You can violate copyright law by copying and sharing, but that is different than stealing. Stealing involves taking something. Copyright involves copying.
It is right there in the name.
It's more about stealing credit.
Like when you say a joke and nobody heard you and somebody tells it again but louder and everybody laughs.
An internet meme isn't a meme until it is shared around. It becomes something that exists without a single person who can take credit as turning it into a meme. The original creator, even if known, isn't the person who turned their creation into a meme.
The need to grasp for credit of an internet cultural phenomenon is foreign to me.
Yes I'm fully aware. I'm merely sharing an analogy.
They're not airborne?
they fly now!
It's like saying your children stole half your DNA...
Well the kids cost them an arm and a leg or more!
So imagine you're a mod. And someone posted a meme to your subreddit. So you delete it, and then post it yourself at an optimal time farming 10s of thousands of upvotes. That's meme theft.
This isn't. Lol
Repost count is a metric of fitness
Look at this cool meme i made
Look at this cool meme I made
Also, stealing this post from .ml is so chaotic neutral lol
the whole point of memes is for them to be shared and spread,
no idea why anyone would complain about their memes being shared.
MORE YAY! PIRACY!
Piracy: Hey everyone, they made a thing! Here’s a copy I made [without permission].
Memes: You made this? [minor change] I made this.
Copyright septimus 2025 all rights reserved
And you infringed septimus's copyright?
Yeah I don’t get not cropping watermarks out of pictures before sharing them.
It re-enforces the fact that OP stole this.
OP should photoshop some crappy lemmy watermark over the Reddit name to really drive it home
69gag
By "steal" you mean "copy".
You made this?
I made this.
Yoink
FTFY
The pirate hat has a will of its own. Always remember, my dear, the pirate hat is trying to get back to its master. It wants to be stolen.
On the high seas of memes, memes being stolen or remixed ups your "upload ratio". You should feel proud. (For you stealing this one, I will look the other way this time, leech 😅)
reminder, memes are made for sharing. If you want your content to be shared, make sure you avoid making memes, or stuff that might become memes.
Copyright is a temporary monopoly on making copies of a work in order to reimburse artists and writers and encourage creativity. It has been hijacked by corporations and turned into this horrid thing where a work enters the public domain only when it has been completely forgotten by the general public.
Piracy of the meme about piracy of a meme.