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eBaum's World is an entertainment website owned by Literally Media. The site was founded in 2001 and features comedy content such as memes, viral videos, images, and other forms of Internet culture. Content is primarily user submitted in exchange for points through a monetary point system "eBones."


History of ownership

eBaum's World originated in
Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...
featuring entertainment media such as
video Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) syst ...
s,
Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Fla ...
cartoons, and web games. The site was created and owned by Eric "eBaum" Bauman and his father, Neil. In August 2007, eBaum's World was acquired by HandHeld Entertainment, also known as ZVUE Corporation, for $15 million up front, $2.5 million in HandHeld stock, and up to $52.5 million in cash and stock over 3 years. On January 31, 2009, Bauman and the company's staff were terminated by ZVUE and the company moved to the San Francisco ZVUE offices. As of 2016, the Israel-based company Literally Media held a controlling stake of eBaum's World. eBaum's World is owned and operated by Literally Media, which also owns Cheezburger,
Know Your Meme ''Know Your Meme'' (''KYM'') is a website and video series which uses wiki software to document various Internet memes and other online phenomena, such as viral videos, image macros, catchphrases, Internet celebrities and more. It also inves ...
, and Cracked.com.


Features

The site features individual celebrity soundboards, where users can click buttons to hear quotes or phrases spoken by that celebrity. There is a
chat room The term chat room, or chatroom (and sometimes group chat; abbreviated as GC), is primarily used to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can thus mean any technology, ranging from ...
, a store that sells eBaum merchandise, and a section called "Moron Mail", which features feedback sent in by users.


Copyright infringement and controversy

eBaum's World has garnered controversy due to numerous incidents of content being taken from other sites (such as
YTMND YTMND, an initialism for "You're the Man Now, Dog", is an online community centered on the creation of hosted memetic web pages (known within the community as ''fads'', ''YTMNDs'' or ''sites'') featuring a juxtaposition of an image (still or sh ...
,
Something Awful ''Something Awful'' (SA) is an American comedy website hosting content including blog entries, Internet forum, forums, feature articles, digitally edited pictures, and humorous media reviews. It was created by Richard Kyanka, Richard "Lowtax" K ...
, Albino Blacksheep,
4chan 4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...
, Olde English, Weebl's Stuff, and
Newgrounds Newgrounds is an entertainment website and company founded by Tom Fulp in 1995. It hosts user-generated content such as games, films, audio, and artwork. Fulp produces in-house content at the headquarters and offices in Glenside, Pennsylvania. ...
) without attribution. Companies such as Viacom have claimed that eBaum's World has infringed on their copyrights. The site denied critics' claims, citing research done by site editors and the consent form that must accompany uploads of material. eBaum's World claimed to honor all requests to remove unauthorized material.


Timeline

* In 2003, Eric Bauman was threatened with legal action by corporations, citing unauthorized use of trademarked names or copyrighted material. One notable case involved the "soundboards" and the audio used within them. * In January 2006, an animated image titled " Lindsay Lohan Doesn't Change Facial Expressions" was lifted from YTMND.com and posted at eBaum's World with the latter site's watermark superimposed. The incident touched off a feud between the two sites, resulting in eBaum's World removing the animation. * On May 26, 2006, several images from the Something Awful forums were displayed on the eBaum's World website. The images on eBaum's World were cropped to remove the Something Awful watermark. The page was removed later in the day following multiple complaints being expressed on the eBaum's World forums. As a result, Something Awful switched to a more invasive
watermark A watermark is an identifying image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations ...
template. * On June 12, 2006, Steven Lerner of Albino Blacksheep explained that eBaum's World took the popular Flash animation "Animator vs. Animation", and the creator of the Flash animation,
Alan Becker Alan Becker (born May 18, 1989) is an American online animator, YouTube personality and artist, best known for creating the ''Animator vs. Animation'' web series, its shorts (both ''Animator vs. Animation Shorts''Commonly abbreviated as ''AvA ...
, would take legal action against eBaum's World. Albino Blacksheep has also threatened legal action and claims that other websites have also asserted difficulties with Eric Bauman. Lerner and Becker used the MochiBot Flash tracking tool to track who used the animation on their web sites. Lerner also explained that the Flash animation is legally protected under the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or ...
of 1998. Furthermore, when the flash was posted on eBaum's World, it had been decompiled and the line "Hosted on albinoblacksheep.com" was removed. On June 9, Bauman sent Becker a $250 check as well as entering him into a monthly "contest" (of which Becker was the
de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
winner) in hopes of having any legal charges dropped. Becker was also told to submit a pre-written statement claiming that none of eBaum's World's content was stolen, and that Bauman had contacted him prior to his content being posted on the site. Alan accepted this proposal, and later submitted this letter of apology to the Flash community of Albino Blacksheep: : On June 26, 2006, eBaum's World removed the animation and the apology from Becker from their web site. * On July 9, 2006, eBaum's World hosted an animation called "Dumb Dinosaur", originally found on Albino Blacksheep and Spinnerdisc.com. They subsequently removed the animation, and issued this apologetic statement to Drew Mokris, creator of Dumb Dinosaur:


On television


''Right This Minute''

eBaum's World has had a weekly segment on ABC-Disney's '' Right This Minute'' called "Real or Fake" since July 2012. Each week longtime eBaum's World editor MacDreidel brings three video clips that are viewed, discussed and ultimately voted on by the show's hosts to determine if the video is a real viral video, or a staged fake.


Television series attempt

On January 24, 2006,
USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Madison ...
made a deal with the
Fox Television Studios The second incarnation of Touchstone Television (formerly known as Fox 21 Television Studios) was an American television production company that is a subsidiary of Disney Media Networks' Walt Disney Television owned by The Walt Disney Company. It ...
to create a television program based on eBaum's World. Producers described it as a late-night companion special to air with ''
WWE Raw ''WWE Raw'', also known as ''Monday Night Raw'' or simply ''Raw'', is an American professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that currently airs live every Monday at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network in the United States. The show fe ...
'', featuring clips from the Web site, as well as new and exclusive content including interviews with former and current eBaum's World subjects. The show was to feature former
TechTV TechTV is a defunct 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. In 2004, it merged with the G4 gaming channel which ultimately dissolved TechTV programming ...
Host Martin Sargent of Unscrewed and professional wrestler
Chris Jericho Christopher Keith Irvine (born November 9, 1970), better known by the ring name Chris Jericho, is an American-Canadian professional wrestler and singer. He is currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is the leader of the Jerich ...
. The show was being executive produced by Simon Andreae through his production company, The Incubator, in association with Fox Television Studios. The cease and desist letters from this company were removed when this show was announced.


Web Soup

G4's television show '' Web Soup'' partnered with eBaum's World for its popular "This Week in FAIL" segment for its third-season run.WEBSOUP SEASON 3 THIS WEEK IN FAIL
nbsp;— ''eBaum's World Blog'' (released April 10, 2011)


See also

*
Viral video A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...


References


External links

*
Smash
– Bauman's successor site {{Literally Media 2001 establishments in New York (state) Browser-based game websites American comedy websites Internet properties established in 2001 Works involved in plagiarism controversies