Are Memes Copyrighted?

Copyright protects original human expression once the creator records it in a sufficiently lasting form. A photograph or film frame can have protection before anyone adds meme text. The owner may be the creator, an employer or someone who acquired the rights through a transfer.

Your contribution needs its own analysis. Ideas and short phrases generally do not qualify for copyright. A sufficiently original human caption, illustration or arrangement may qualify, but any protection for new material does not give you ownership of someone else's underlying image.

Copyright can exist without registration. For U.S. works, registration or refusal is generally needed before a copyright lawsuit, and timely registration can affect the remedies available.

Find the original source and identify the copyright owner or an authorized licensor. Read the permission or license for the use you have in mind: adding a caption, publishing on your chosen channel or using the image in an advertisement. Check its conditions, including any attribution requirement.

Credit names the creator. It does not replace authorization. An image being downloadable, appearing in a meme tool or circulating on social media does not establish that the uploader can grant you rights.

Public-domain material may be usable without copyright permission. Verify the status of the particular work and version. Check whether the version you plan to use contains separately protected creative additions.

U.S. fair use can allow an unlicensed use of copyrighted material. Section 107 lists purposes such as criticism, commentary, teaching and research, and requires courts to consider four factors:

Parody can have a reason to borrow from the work it criticizes. Using the same image to joke about an unrelated subject requires its own justification. A mashup, new message or visual change does not settle the fair-use question.

In Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith, the Supreme Court examined the Foundation's commercial licensing of Orange Prince for a magazine. The decision concerned that specific use and the first fair-use factor. It did not decide every creation, display or sale of the Prince Series works.

For a meme, look at the planned use and the reason for borrowing the image, as well as the other factors. Calling the result transformative is not a substitute for that analysis.

On June 7, 2024, the Eighth Circuit affirmed a judgment against the King for Congress Committee for its fundraising use of Laney Griner's Success Kid photograph. The jury found the committee, rather than the Congressman, liable for copyright infringement.

The committee used the image in posts asking for donations without seeking or receiving permission. The court rejected its fair-use defense. It considered the commercial purpose, the absence of a further purpose or compelling justification for borrowing, and the use of the photograph's central subject.

Widespread meme circulation did not justify that committee's use. The ruling addressed this fundraising use; it does not decide the status of every Success Kid meme.

These facts, on their own, do not show that a use is authorized or fair:

• Other accounts or brands have used the same template.
• You credited the creator or found no copyright notice.
• You added new words, cropped the picture or placed a logo on it.
• You paid for an editing tool or downloaded a blank template.

Identify the permission, public-domain status or exception you rely on for the actual use. A tool can help you edit an image without answering that rights question.

Record the source and proposed use alongside the campaign brief. These questions help identify what needs review; they do not produce a fair-use score or approve a campaign.

Where did the image come from?

Keep the original source link and identify the owner or authorized licensor. A repost or a template name may not tell you who controls the rights.

What permits this use?

Keep the license or permission and check its scope. If you rely on public-domain status or fair use, record the facts supporting that assessment. Popularity and age do not replace it.

What will the campaign do with the image?

Specify the caption, edits, channel and purpose, including whether you will run paid ads. Changing an organic post into an advertisement can change the use that needs review.

Does the post raise other rights questions?

A person's likeness, a logo or an implied endorsement can raise issues beyond copyright. A brand kit changes the styling; it does not clear those rights.

Trademark law concerns signs that identify the source of goods or services. Rights involving a person's commercial likeness vary by jurisdiction. For example, California Civil Code 3344 addresses certain advertising or sales uses of a person's name, voice, photograph or likeness, with exceptions. A visible person or logo does not by itself establish a violation.

Once the image and use have been reviewed, build the audience, message and measurement plan with the meme marketing strategy guide.

For the words and layout, see how to write a meme caption.

For many U.S. works created from 1978 onward, the term is the author's life plus 70 years. Works made for hire and anonymous or pseudonymous works can have a term of 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter. Earlier works have different rules. A meme's age alone cannot establish public-domain status.

These images are editorial jokes from earlier versions of this guide. Their captions are not legal tests, and their inclusion does not establish a license for your reuse.