Court Rules "Success Kid" Meme Use in Political Ad Does Not Qualify as Fair Use

The intellectual property rights of Memes remains concrete.
Success Kid succeeds again. https://t.co/MMygshiuLj pic.twitter.com/8BeRyMkC9A

— benlashes.eth (@BenLashes) June 11, 2024

When the Obama White House in 2013 used the “Success Kid” meme to promote, in posts on social media, the adoption of the Immigration Reform Bill – nobody clenched a fist, much less batted an eyelash to brand this PR strategy as a copyright violation. However, the same can’t be said for the case of former Republican Congressman Steve King’s use of the meme (variations of which have been all over the internet for the past 15 or so years). But, when it made its way to one of King’s Facebook posts in 2020, the family of the child whose picture is used as a template sued on copyright grounds.