FredGarvin said:Greg: He really makes millions off of his site? Holy crud.
The creators of the flash animation are artists, they work hard to produce original entertainment like this for us all to enjoy. Unfortunately we live in a world where artists like these are being exploited, and others are profiting from their hard work. There are many sites that do this, but Ebaumsworld is the worst offender.
Eric Bauman has been making a great deal of money from the work of others for many years, and refuses to acknowledge that what he is doing is both illegal and immoral. Our goal is to stop him.
Permission DeniedThe following are examples of complaints from people who've been screwed over, these are just from our small corner of the web at SomethingAwful forums.
Secks:
As bad as it is, it's even worse when you find your own **** on there. I do a lot of work for Worth1000 and I found one of my 'popular' photoshop projects on his site with, of course, his logo slapped on it. I emailed him over and over in order to get it taken down and I was going to prove to him that it was mine by sending the PSD file, etc. No response.
Finally, it took Avi from Worth to contact him in order for him to take it down. God that pisses me off. Someone sees the hard work I did and all they think of is "Oh, that wacky Ebaums site! They sure know how to make me laugh!"
**** him.
Ultramega OK:
I recall eBaum stole a "Joe AIDS" photoshop from SA - possible a Photoshop Phriday entry - a while back, and covered the SA tag with his own logo. But he eventually removed it when the goon who made it e-mailed him the original photoshop file.
essaywhutman:
I used to simply slap my name in the corner of some of my old photoshops. You really couldn't find it unless you were looking for it. He took several of them, found my name, clone brushed over it, and put the logo in a different corner.
bananna sex monster:
quote:
As bad as it is, it's even worse when you find your own **** on there. I do a lot of work for Worth1000 and I found one of my 'popular' photoshop projects on his site with, of course, his logo slapped on it. I emailed him over and over in order to get it taken down and I was going to prove to him that it was mine by sending the PSD file, etc. No response. Finally, it took Avi from Worth to contact him in order for him to take it down. God that pisses me off. Someone sees the hard work I did and all they think of is "Oh, that wacky Ebaums site! They sure know how to make me laugh!"
**** him.
end quote
Same here about a year ago.
MarshallX:
quote:
I don't see what the big deal is, the only thing being stolen is people's internet cred. So the guy has a compilation of funny videos in one place, people are just jealous they didn't do the same. The branding doesn't imply that he created them, it's just getting him more traffic. I understand if it's a flash game or something someone coded, but a chick falling off a crotch rocket or a dumb kid hitting his face on a car is public domain as far as I'm concerned.
end quote
SA Image Macro's have been posted there, had the watermarks removed, and had his added. I have seen it many times, I just can't access the site from work. It's what SA add's the images that make them feasible for the damn site in the first place. Do you really think anyone would want to look at 3 old guys sucking each other off? No. Add a catchphrase (in this case LEMONPARTY) to it and you got your self good old fashion comedy, stolen.
therapy:
quote:
So if people got credit for their work, Ebaum's would be fine?
end quote
Yeah, if he asked permission to host things and provided the original source of it, it'd be no big deal to me. I've had ****ty image macros stolen, had their SA watermark removed from them (back when we used to do that) and had EBAUMSWORLD.COM plastered all over the bottom, and put up on his site. If he'd just said "From the Somethingawful.com forums" or "from Therapy at the Somethingawful.com forums" I'd have had no problem to do it.
If I were a front page writer or something and he snagged my article for the site, I'd be pissed. The front page writers work their asses off to try and be funny a few times a week, and it's a lot of pressure to write something funny that often. Not only that, but you're doing it to make the site itself better. When somebody steals that and puts it on their site without crediting the source, it's like if Mexico City built an exact replica of the Acropolis and called it El Acropoligeso and insisted to the rest of the world they invented it.
Microwave:
eBaum really seems to think he is invincible. He stole promotional games for Donkey Kong and Juicy Fruit. Promotional-****ing-games. At the same time though, I think he's a lot smarter than we give him credit, he just knows his fanbase isn't.
jaxomlotus (http://www.worth1000.com)
Quote:
Thank you. That is pretty much what I was interested in knowing. Bauman doesn't explicitly claim that he created the work, but nor does he attribute those who published it. I was wondering whether it is criminal to not attribute the publisher of a work, and from what you say it is.
end quote
Yes, what he does is probably illegal, but there's not enough netlaw to deal with it yet. There are too many loopholes for him to use to be successfully sued out existence by individual copyright holders. (i.e. Properly formatted cease and desist letters usually need to be sent and ignored before a lawsuit can take place). A class action lawsuit against him is probably inevitable. I guess as his pockets get deeper and more famous some lawyer somewhere will eventually take it upon himself to organize one.
That being said, in correspondence with him, he claims to not know when something is copyrighted. He says the watermarks were removed before he received them and he assumes the sender was the copyright holder. I don't believe that to always be true, but he certainly wasn't flaunting his
infringement around as some in this thread suggest.
Forum Link
gothfae:
I ocasionally go to eBaums, just cause it's a great repository of stolen stuff that I can no longer find anywhere else. If he claimed it was an internet humor archive site and gave credit where credit was due, I would be a lot happier.
Almost half the cubicals in my old office when I worked at AT&T, had printed-out images done by our own inimitable PovRayMan, ****ed up with ebaums logos. Even the ones who cut off the logo cause it 'was annoying' still weren't in a position to know who had done them, nor any clue why I'd sometimes ask them about their stairs. For those reasons alone means that I would still like to kick him in the jimmy.
And as for Photoshop Phridays? It's why I joined the forums in the first place to have anything I did worth doing branded with a url and stuck on the front page. Pride in the recognition of your work, mockery of those who didn't get it at the end... Not happy go lucky plagiarism.
weebl (http://www.weebls-stuff.com)
Maybe I can do something since he's stealing work of mine which is wholey made by me and from which I make a living. It does say on every page of my site that the content is copyrighted too. I'd love to give him grief but don't know how to go about it since I'm sure UK and US copyright law differs.
Forum Link
Mr. Kite:
I'm sure its been mentioned, but the game that was posted here a few months ago where you had to 'unscramble' all the lines was posted on ebaums a few days after showing up here.
GregNorc:
I've seen one of my photoshops on his site, e-mailed him, got no response. Next time I pop out something high quality that I know will end up on his site, I'm registering it with the copyright office (thus letting me go for the big money... 50,000 per use or so, depending on the judge, that could be based on each view) and taking his ass to court. I'll file with one of those "No fee unless we win" lawyers. They take most of the winnings, but who cares, I'm doing this to shut him down, not make a boatload of cash. Anyone else with me?
We sent out e-mails to the creators of many of the Flashes on eBaums. Here are some of the responses we got...
In regards to Pyoro being on eBaums:
"I never gave them permission to use any of my content." -JohnnySlack
The creators of Peanut Butter Jelly Time:
"This is Kevin Flynn & Ryan Etrata, the legal owners of Peanut Butter Jelly Time. Neither of us ever gave Ebaum's World permission in any way, shape, or form for our animation to be on his website."
Defend Your Castle & Fishy:
"We didn't supply permission to EBaumsWorld, and received a cold response when we asked for our work to be removed." - Skye J.W. Boyes, CEO XGen Studios Inc.
Annoying Song, Badgers, Ahhhh Flash, and Santa Badger:
"Eric Bauman is a liar whose business model is based on stealing the work of others in order to get content for pages he can advertise on. Nice work Eric." -Weebl
Regarding Eric's lies about working with Weebl in our chatlog?
"Nothing on the planet would get me to work with him unless it involved saving a burning child from an aids filled orphanage." -Weebl
Weebl's flashes were removed as of 19/01/06, after many many e-mails sent
Regarding the frequently stolen photoshops from Worth1000:
"He's stolen from my members plenty of times and claimed that he 'never got the takedown emails' we repeatedly send him. For someone so rich from other people's content, he should be able to afford a better email provider."
"He violates basic ethical codes of conduct in how he takes from others without asking, and then pisses all over what's left of his soul when he rips off their credit and puts on his own. Not only did his parents not teach him right from wrong, his father actively helps him with his thievery on his website." -jaxomlutus, Owner of Worth1000.com
Regarding the "Pharmacy" flash animation:
"I never contacted him about it, but yes it was stolen, and originally made for a different site that pays you for animation." -Shmorky
Now that's classy.
Actually, the way intellectual property laws work, the only people you can go after for infringement are those who are making some sort of money off it. Of course, if all they make is 10 cents, you can still mire them in legal proceedings to get that 10 cents, but usually it's only the big fish making a lot of money that folks go after because it's worth the legal expenses to get the money they've been making.FredGarvin said:That is amazing. I never knew. I always pictured EBaum as an older 50+ guy that had nothing better to do. I have to admit that I am torn on the intellectual property angle. A lot of the stuff he has, I have seen on countless other sites. I am sure none of those other sites pay any kind of royalties to the originator of the work. Why is EBaum any different? Because he's made money from advertising? I understand why people would be mad at him, but that means they have to go after EVERY site, not just the ones that make money.
the thing is bauman isn't making a little money he is making millionsMoonbear said:Actually, the way intellectual property laws work, the only people you can go after for infringement are those who are making some sort of money off it. Of course, if all they make is 10 cents, you can still mire them in legal proceedings to get that 10 cents, but usually it's only the big fish making a lot of money that folks go after because it's worth the legal expenses to get the money they've been making.
Ebaumsworld.com is a humor and entertainment website that features user-generated content such as memes, videos, games, and forums.
Ebaumsworld.com was created in 2001 by Eric "eBaum" Bauman.
Some people enjoy the content on ebaumsworld.com and find it entertaining, while others criticize the website for reposting content from other sources without proper credit.
No, ebaumsworld.com is not a reliable source of information as it mainly focuses on humorous and entertainment content rather than factual information.
Yes, ebaumsworld.com is still active and continues to feature user-generated content on a daily basis.