Current Events > Mother of child in viral meme sends Steve King cease-and-desist for using image

(+) Yeah! (+)

The mother of a child featured in a decades-old meme called "Success Kid" is demanding that Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) stop using the image in his fundraising appeals on social media.

BuzzFeed News reported Monday that attorneys for Laney Griner, whose infant son appeared clenching his fist in apparent triumph in the image first posted in 2007, sent a cease-and-desist letter to King demanding that he refund any money raised using the meme.

"I recently learned that Iowa Representative Steve King is using my copyrighted photograph of my minor son Samuel known as 'Success Kid' to raise money in a 'Fund our Memes' online campaign, also implying that he has some kind of ownership in it," Griner tweeted.

"Representative King and his campaign staff appropriated 'Success Kid' without my permission. 'Success Kids' is about positivity and celebrates achievement. Neither I, my son, nor 'Success Kid' have any affiliation with Representative King," she added. "Representative King should remove 'Success Kid' from his webpages immediately, issue a statement to acknowledge that the image was taken without our permission and endorsement, and refund the money his campaign received from misusing Success Kid'."

isnt he the racist pos anyway?