Jury orders Steve King's campaign to pay $750 for using copyrighted meme
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Former U.S. Rep. Steve King's political campaign broke the law when it used a popular meme in a fundraising appeal, a federal jury has found. But the jury also determined that the longtime Iowa congressman was not personally liable.
The trial in Sioux City pitted King, who represented northwest Iowa in Washington from 2003 to 2021, against Laney Griner. Her photo of her infant son Sam is known online as the "Success Kid" meme and has been widely shared for years.
The picture at issue, taken during a beach vacation, shows Sam clutching a handful of sand with an expression of steely determination.
King's campaign used Sam's photo, superimposed over a background of the U.S. Capitol, in a Facebook post in January 2020 urging supporters to "Fund our memes!!!" Laney Griner, who copyrighted the photo in 2012, sent a cease-and-desist letter soon after, and, in December 2020, sued King and his campaign for copyright infringement and invasion of privacy against Sam, now a teen.
Previously:Meme toddler's mom sends cease-and-desist to Rep. Steve King for copyright infringement
The Griners cited the Kiron Republican's political views, including widely-condemned 2019 statements by King asking why "white nationalist, white supremacist" were offensive terms, and said they would never have agreed to lend Sam's image in support.
The complaint said Griner and her son "were both horrified to learn that defendant has used Laney’s photograph of Sam and Sam’s likeness as campaign propaganda for King, someone whose statements and beliefs they find abhorrent."
The jury agreed that King's campaign violated the copyright and awarded $750 in damages, the minimum allowed by statute. But it did not find that King, who denied knowledge of the meme before it was posted, had personally violated the copyright. Jurors also found neither campaign nor candidate had invaded Sam Griner's privacy with the Facebook post.
The case went to trial after U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams refused the Griners' motion for summary judgment. Williams ruled in August that a reasonable factfinder could find the photo, modified as it was with a new background, was no longer "substantially similar" to the copyrighted image, and said that question was up to the jury to decide.
Thursday's verdict left both sides claiming at least partial victory. Stephen Doninger, an attorney for the Griners, pointed to the jury's affirmation that the fundraising meme violated copyright law but said the damages award was lower than the plaintiffs had hoped.
"While we are pleased that the jury found that the use of my client's work in Congressman King's fundraising campaign was copyright infringement and not fair use, we are disappointed both that the jury did not hold Mr. King liable for the acts his committee undertook on his behalf and with the value it placed on the infringement," he said in an email. "Nevertheless, we thank the jury for its service and respect its verdict."
King, in an emailed statement, expressed gratitude to the jury and said he wondered if the jury award would have been even smaller had the law permitted. He also criticized the Griners for singling him out for political reasons.
"Of billions of images of 'success kid' they chose me," he said. "Why? First, they didn’t believe I would fight them and expected me to pay a negotiated extortion fee. Second, Griner is a vicious Leftist who despises my ideology. I was a twofer."
Although used freely as a meme online, the photo also has commercial value. The Griners have licensed its use in ad campaigns and objected to King's unauthorized use of it for fundraising purposes, according to the complaint.
"The copyright troll complex industry has been exposed," King said in his statement. "Congress is already alerted.”
Court records show the jury deliberated less than five hours before reaching its verdict.
William Morris covers courts for the Des Moines Register. He can be contacted at wrmorris2@registermedia.com, 715-573-8166 or on Twitter at @DMRMorris.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Steve King campaign violated 'Success Kid' copyright, jury rules
