MEMES
Another forwarded email lands in your inbox. Whether the picture, video or joke it contains inspires a giggle or a groan, what you decide to do next is a factor in its ‘success’. Only the best will be passed along to friends, gradually working their way into popular culture, while the less inspired are weeded out of the meme pool into Internet obscurity. Some, like Lolcats, Rickrolling and viral video ‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ will gain global notoriety.
T is is the Internet meme. It can be an image, video or
trending Twitter hashtag, but like
an organism, it has the potential to grow and mutate, and only the best will survive. Memes will inspire commentary, imitations and parodies in massive numbers if they’re good enough. T ey are the Internet’s perfect off spring. Fundamentally, they’re ideas that are easily distributed and modifi ed online.
Meme-generator ‘I Can Has Cheezburger?’ invites users to caption pet owners’ photographs of cats. It is part of the Cheezburger network, a hub of Internet memes and viral videos with an encyclopaedia to boot.
Cheezburger defi nes a meme as “a piece of content or an idea that’s passed from person to person, changing and evolving along the way”. For Cheezburger, it’s the adaptability of a meme that’s crucial.
T e best memes are the most memorable and create a talking point for those who share them, which is why they are so powerful. T ey’re becoming increasingly attractive
to
companies who want to cash in on cool—aſt er all, everyone enjoys being in on the joke.
Unsurprisingly, given memes’ nebulous nature, their copyright status is not so clear-cut. Furthermore, many memes are enmeshed in popular culture and may rely on others’ IP. For example, the recent ‘Chandler dancing on things’ meme combines copyrighted footage from the US TV series Friends with other copyrighted material.
www.worldipreview.com Trademarks Brands and the Internet Volume 2, Issue 1 21
savvy
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