Pepe Settlement Is ‘Missed Opportunity’ for Fair Use Guidance

A settlement in a copyright infringement lawsuit between Alex Jones’ Infowars LLC and the artist behind Pepe the Frog denied practitioners hoped-for legal guidance in an era where images are quickly shared and widely adapted.

Infowars paid $15,000 to settle a dispute heading to trial, where a jury was to determine whether adding Pepe the Frog to a poster featuring right-wing political figures and President Donald Trump was fair use under copyright law. Alt-right and neo-Nazi fringe groups also had adopted the Pepe character.

That settlement marks “a missed opportunity” to clarify issues involving the changes “that social media has ...