Keyboard Cat wins a settlement with maker of the game “Scribblenauts”
Spokane's Keyboard Cat creator Charile Schmidt has settled a copyright infringement suit filed against Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and 5th Cell Media.
Schmidt was joined in the suit by Christopher Torres, creator of the popular web creation Nyan Cat.
The settlement, in U.S. District Court for Central California, provides no details on the compensation paid to Torres and Schmidt.
In April the two sued Warner Brothers, the publisher of the game Scribblenauts, alleging it included images of the cats without permission or compensation. The software development firm 5th Cell Media was also sued.
Neither company acknowledged wrongdoing. A statement issued by a representative for Nyan Cat said Warner Brothers recently signed agreements to continue using the two cat characters in the game.
Both Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat have become Internet memes — popular figures or images that have been cited, repeated and linked to by millions of web users.
U.S. copyright law requires anyone making money by reusing the copyrighted images of an artistic creation must first go through a licensing agreement with the owners.
Schmidt’s cat, Fatso, became a web sensation in 2007 when a New York web user posted a video of the animal playing an electronic keyboard. That marked the start of the frequently repeated “play him off, Keyboard Cat” meme.