psql:
Giphy’s acquisition by Facebook is built on nothing short of theft. The initial core product was stealing gifs from tumblr artists, creating fake accounts for them, and shopping around a search engine combined with this stolen data. Not only have they violated Tumblr’s Terms of Service, but have also stolen property from artists without consent. When confronted by this, staff at Giphy told artists the same sob story: “We’re not profiting off anyone anywhere. We have no income” They sold for 400 million dollars.
While they mention folks can file a DMCA takedown, this does not reverse the fact that Giphy redeemed the work of artists in exchange for driving up company valuation. The acquisition represents an awful precedent for not compensating artists. This predatory company should be held accountable. Giphy employees are receiving option exercise agreements, yet artists are receiving nothing. I encourage anybody who has had their work scraped and distributed by Giphy without consent to come forward.