HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

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 and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...
, featuring entertainment media such as
video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...
s,
Adobe Flash Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a mostly discontinuedAlthough it is discontinued by Adobe Inc., for the Chinese market it is developed by Zhongcheng and for the international enterprise market it is developed by Ha ...
cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...
s, 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 that uses wiki A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki ...
, and Cracked.com.


Features

The site features individual celebrity soundboards, where users can click buttons to hear quotes or phrases spoken by the 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 on which eBaum merchandise are put on sale and a section called ''Moron Mail'' featuring feedback sent in by users. The site also featured a message board, which existed until 2019. Bauman still operates a board created right after his termination by ZVUE. The forum was name
sbaumsworld
in tribute to Bauman's history at the eBaum's World.


Copyright infringement and controversy

eBaum's World has garnered controversy due to numerous incidents of content being taken from other sites (such as YTMND,
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 video games and television to literature, cooking, weapons, mu ...
, Olde English, Weebl's Stuff, and
Newgrounds Newgrounds is an American entertainment website founded by Tom Fulp in 1995 and owned by Newgrounds.com, Inc. The site hosts user-generated content such as games, films, audio, and artwork. Fulp produces in-house content at the headquarters and ...
) 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 Lindsay Dee Lohan ( ; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, singer, producer, and businesswoman. Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Lohan was signed to Ford Models at age three. She appeared as a regular on the soap opera ' ...
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 i ...
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, 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 animation 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'' 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 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 (or simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division of Comcast's NBCUniversal. It was launched in 1977 as Madison Square Garden Sports Network, one of the first national sports ...
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 and a subsidiary of the Disney Television Studios, a subsidiary of the Disney Media Networks business se ...
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. It currently airs Live television, live every Monday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on Netflix. 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 was an American cable television channel with a focus on technology. It was launched as ZDTV on May 11, 1998, by computer magazine publisher Ziff Davis, Ziff-Davis following two short-lived technology-based programs by the company. Init ...
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, rock musician, and actor. As a wrestler, he has been signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW) , where he ...
. 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 A cease and desist letter is a document sent by one party, often a business, to warn another party that they believe the other party is committing an unlawful act, such as copyright infringement, and that they will take legal action if the oth ...
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 Viral videos are video, videos that become popular through viral phenomenon, a viral process of Internet sharing, primarily through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhon ...


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