Success kid?s mom won?t stand for Steve King?s ?meme? ad

“[King] is using the original picture of this kid, which is clearly copyrightable.” To that end, Griner does, in fact, hold the copyright, and she wouldn’t be the first person to try to enforce their copyright of an image-turned-meme. Matt Furie, the artist behind the infamous Pepe the Frog meme, has taken around 75 people and entities to task (or court) for reproducing Pepe’s image without his permission.Emma Grey Ellis Emma Grey Ellis Emma Grey Ellis The real legal questions are two: Did he violate the Griners’ right of publicity, and can King prove that his campaign’s version of the meme is a fair use of Griner’s copyrighted material? “You can’t be forced to endorse Coca-Cola if you only drink Pepsi,” says Stacey Lantagne, who researches intellectual property law as it pertains to internet creativity at the University of Mississippi School of Law. Considering that Griner has called King “vile” and the Republican party “disgusting,” it’s safe to say she doesn’t endorse King’s run for the House.The fair use question is a good bit more complicated, especially with regard to memes.