EBaum's World

EBaum's World

Infobox Website
name = eBaum's World
favicon =
logo =


caption =
url = [http://www.ebaumsworld.com/ eBaumsWorld.com]
commercial = Yes
type = Entertainment website
registration = Optional
owner = Eric Bauman
author = eBaum's World Inc.
launch date = 2001 (incorporated since December 3, 2002)
current status =
revenue =
eBaum's World (subtitled "Media for The Masses") is a popular website based in Rochester, New York featuring entertainment media such as videos, Flash cartoons and web games. It is highly controversial for many reasons, primarily due to allegations that content on the website is taken from other sources without permission and rebranded with the eBaum's World logo. The site, which is owned by Eric "eBaum" Bauman, a native of Rochester, New York, ranks in the top 1000 sites on the Internet according to the website Alexa. [http://alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=ebaumsworld.com] It is co-owned by Eric's secretary and father, Neil Bauman.

Features

The site features individual celebrity soundboards, where users can click buttons to hear quotes or phrases spoken by that celebrity. By pressing certain buttons in an organized order, users can simulate the celebrities saying unusual things. In this way, the soundboards are commonly used in prank phone calls. These calls are often recorded and subsequently re-submitted to the site.

eBaum's World has a very large forum community, with thousands of members and over one million posts. There is also a chatroom, and a store which sells eBaum merchandise. There is also a section called "Moron Mail" which features feedback sent in by users.

eBaum's World has a very large collection of prank and comedic photos which are divided into signs, Photoshop images, and misleading croppings of normal pictures.

This site also has a very large collection of Flash movies and games from across the internet. Some of the more famous ones are Peanut Butter Jelly Time (despite the creator's explicit statements that he does not want it hosted on eBaum's World [http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.10/ebaum.html] , and "Where's Waldo?".Fact|date=August 2008

Controversy

eBaum's World has garnered significant controversy in many Internet communities over the years due to numerous incidents of content being taken from other sites; such as YTMND, Something Awful, Albino Blacksheep, 4chan, Olde English, Weebl's Stuff and Newgrounds; without attribution. Companies such as Viacom [http://www.courttv.com/news/cow/022603_prankcalls_ctv.html] [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20021115120705/www.ebaumsworld.com/legalsoundboards.html] , 20th Century Fox [http://web.archive.org/web/20050303004436/www.ebaumsworld.com/grapefall-legal.html] , and Sega have all claimed that Eric and Neil Bauman have infringed on their copyrights as well. Eric Bauman denies critics' claims that the site's content is stolen, citing research done by site editors and the consent form that must accompany uploads of material. He claims to honor all requests to remove unauthorized material [http://www.ebaumsworld.com/response-01-10-05.html] , but this is contested by some content creators. In particular, web artist and animator Jonti Picking, was only able to have his animations removed at the beginning of 2006. [http://www.ebaumsworld.com/flash/santabadger.html] Bauman has claimed that he formerly worked with Picking, though Picking has stated that this is false. [http://www.ebaumsworldsucks.com/chatlog.php] [http://ebaumsworldsucks.com/hypocrisy.php]

Timeline of controversies

* As early as 2003, Eric Bauman had been threatened by 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. [http://www.courttv.com/news/cow/022603_prankcalls_ctv.html]

* In early 2005, Hasbro sent a cease-and-desist letter claiming that the GI Joe parody videos, originally made by independent producer "FenslerFilm", violated their registered trademarks and copyrights. The videos were not removed, since FenslerFilm did not face any legal action.

* Since November 2005, several arguments between eBaum's World forum members and Something Awful forum members have occurred concerning the posting of "Photoshop Phriday" images on eBaum's World without permission.

* In late 2005, Sega threatened to sue eBaum's World after a copy of the game "Super Monkey Ball" was posted on the site. Not only was the Flash-based game posted on the site, it was "hot-linked," meaning that the game was merely displayed on the webpage while being hosted on Sega's official website; most of eBaum's detractors take this as direct proof that eBaum's World employees knowingly host stolen material,Fact|date=August 2008 and screenshots of the page loading text and page source code are easy to find using a search engine. The page was removed, and eventually it was replaced with an image of Eric Estrada pointing to the viewer, with the text "YOU'RE A HOMO" in large bold letters on the bottom of the image.

* On January 6, 2006, eBaum's World hosted and watermarked a Lindsay Lohan montage created by Derek Lutz (a.k.a. YTMND user SpliceVW) without crediting either he nor YTMND. Users from YTMND, along with users from other internet communities, such as Something Awful, Newgrounds, 4chan, FARK, GameFAQs, LUElinks, and IGN, responded by disrupting the eBaum's World forums with spam posts and DDoS attacks. On January 10, eBaum's World alleged the attacks were a form of "cyber-terrorism", and on January 11, Neil Bauman stated publicly that arrests were being made in relation to the attacks (though no confirmation of any arrests has ever been made.) Max Goldberg, the owner of YTMND, and Neil Bauman eventually came to an agreement, with Bauman agreeing to remove the montage from his website, and in return, for Goldberg removing any reference to "eBaum" from his website. Despite the resolution, both sites experienced DDoS attacks on the morning of January 12, 2006.

* On February 23, 2006, Michael Parker, an eBaum's World representative, appeared on G4's "Attack of the Show" to try and clear up the recent controversy with YTMND. Kevin Pereira, co-host of the show, asked Parker explicit questions about the alleged infringing. [http://www.g4tv.com/attackoftheshow/blog/AOTB/post/562507/The_Ebaums_World_Interview.html] ] Parker claimed:

: cquote|There aren't any written rules or regulations. We're trying to do our due diligence and do the things that we feel are right by not taking other people's material without crediting them or contacting them first. We try to...we contact all these people. Like if we something we like, like a game, we don't just put it on our site [sic] . We contact these people. And if you notice with all our new Flash games, we have our own intro in them, and it's done by the creators and we pay them for that.

* On May 26, 2006, several images from the Something Awful forums were displayed on the eBaum's World website. [http://www.somethingawful.com/index.php?a=3089] 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 template.

* On June 12, 2006, Steven Lerner of Albino Blacksheep explained that eBaum's World took the animation "Animator vs. Animation," and the creator of the Flash animation, Alan Becker, would take legal action against eBaum's World. [http://alanbecker.deviantart.com] 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 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 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:

: cquote|Hello, I am the author of Animator vs. Animation...

I feel so ashamed, and the world is ashamed of me.

I fell into eBaum's trap. I gave them fuel to fight back.

With their constant persuasion and offers for money, they made me write a quote saying that everything was fine. Of course everything was fine for me, because I had the money they had given me. What can you expect, I was dead poor before, I have no experience with business. The quote says they contacted me before they posted my animation on their website, however I did not give them permission to put it on. [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/#a20060623] :: 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:

: cquote|Mr. Mokris,

We were recently contacted by a fan of yours in regards to the July9th post on your website declaring that you did not give us permissionto feature your flash animation. First off, I apologize for themixup, your flash was submitted to us via our upload form and our clearance dept's initial review led us to believe it was submitted by the original author. I have removed the animation from the system, although it may take a fewhours for the changes to be reflected for all users. Once again, myapologies for the mixup, and keep up the good work, we are big fans ofyour animations!

: It went on to issue him a draft notice to join Eric's program for Flash animators to put eBaum's World logos in all their animations.

eBaum's World on television

On January 24, 2006, USA Network made a deal with the Fox Television Studios to create a television program based on eBaum's World. Producers described it as a late-night companion special to air with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) "Monday Night RAW" featuring clips from the website, as well as new and exclusive content including interviews with former and current eBaum's World subjects. The Show was to feature former TechTV Host Martin Sargent of Unscrewed and professional wrestler Chris Jericho. 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. [http://web.archive.org/web/20050303004436/www.ebaumsworld.com/grapefall-legal.html]

On February 27, 2006, a researcher named Bradley Scott from eBaum's World TV show contacted the webmaster of Albino Blacksheep, asking the webmaster to sign over the site's content while refusing to admit what show it was for. The producer of eBaum's World television show finally admitted who he was but did not directly acknowledge the content that appears on eBaum's World, including Albino Blacksheep's. The webmaster recorded samples of these calls for their message boards.

The show's pilot was expected to air in August 2006; however, it did not, and on September 25, 2006, wrestling website PWInsider reported that USA had passed on the pilot. [http://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.asp?id=20502&p=1]

Other endeavors

As of July 2004 [http://www.ebaumsworld.com/rock-toneyPR.doc] , eBaum's World sponsors professional boxer Hasim Rahman.

References

External links

* [http://www.ebaumsworld.com eBaum's World] - Official Website.
* [http://www.ebaumsworldsucks.com eBaum's World Sucks] - Site critical of eBaumsWorld.com.
* [http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/archive/june2006#a20060612 Albino Blacksheep] - Animator vs. Animation Controversy
* [http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.10/ebaum.html Dude, That Is So Not Funny] - October 2006 article from Wired Magazine.


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • EBaum's World — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda eBaum´s World Información general URL http://www.ebaumsworld.com/ Comercial sí Tipo de sitio sit …   Wikipedia Español

  • eBaum's World — URL eBaumsWorld.com Commercial? Yes Type of site Entertainment website …   Wikipedia

  • YTMND — The main page of the YTMND website from August 18, 2011. URL YTMND.com Commercial? Yes Type of site Specialized website com …   Wikipedia

  • April Fools Day 2008 — April 1, 2008 was an April Fools Day falling on a Tuesday. In newspapers, magazines and news websites * About.com s Car Reviews posted a fake story that Toyota had announced a new 256 horsepower V6 Prius to accommodate the needs of car buyers… …   Wikipedia

  • Internet vigilantism — is the phenomenon of vigilantic acts taken through the Internet (the communication network or its service providers) or carried out using applications (World Wide Web, e mail) that depend on the Internet. The term encompasses vigilantism against… …   Wikipedia

  • Anonymous — Para otros usos de este término, véase Anonymous (desambiguación). Anonymous Una de las banderas del movimiento. El hombre sin cabeza y traje formal representa la ausencia de líderes o dirigentes. Lema …   Wikipedia Español

  • N (video game) — N v1.4 Developer(s) Metanet Software Publisher(s) Metanet Software Designer(s) Raigan Burns, Mare Sheppard …   Wikipedia

  • Imageboard — Screenshot from the 4chan.org imageboard. Probably the most popular imageboard to date. An imageboard or image board (also chan, which is short for channel) is a type of Internet forum that revolves around the posting of images. The first… …   Wikipedia

  • The Video Game Pianist — Martin Leung beim Londoner Video Games Live Konzert Martin Leung, auch bekannt als The Video Game Pianist oder The Blindfolded Pianist (der Pianist mit der Augenbinde) (* 18. Oktober 1986 in Hong Kong) ist ein Pianist, der internationale… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Video Game Pianist — Martin Leung beim Londoner Video Games Live Konzert Martin Leung, auch bekannt als The Video Game Pianist oder The Blindfolded Pianist (der Pianist mit der Augenbinde) (* 18. Oktober 1986 in Hong Kong) ist ein Pianist, der internationale… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”