I just heard about ByteDance applying for the copyright of #Gugugaga, and my mind is full of questions. So, I wanted to bring this to our community to ask for your thoughts and discuss it together🐧
According to public information from the China Copyright Protection Center, ByteDance officially registered the fine art copyrights for "Gugugaga-2D" and "Gugugaga-3D" (July 2, 2026).
As for Guga's origin: Her underlying visual prototype stems from the game Arknights: Endfield developed by Hypergryph. It was then combined by netizens with the classic Western baby babble "Goo goo gaga." Finally, Bilibili creator 贱兔死顺盖 used AI model for a chibi-style de-abstraction and stitching process, evolving into the Gugugaga image we know today.
I have a few core questions:
1. Is the registration certificate obtained by ByteDance this time just a formal legal filing, or is it an attempt to achieve substantive "right confirmation" and a complete monopoly over this internet-wide IP?
2. Who should the underlying copyright of Guga actually belong to? Hypergryph (the game developer)? The creator 順蓋死賤兔 who first molded this image? Or ByteDance, the provider of the AI tool Dreamina?
3. For artworks created using AI tools, does the copyright belong to the humans who typed the prompts and poured in their imagination, or the companies that provide the underlying AI models?
Will we still be able to freely create and publish Guga content in the future?
4. Can creators still earn a profit from the Guga fan works they poured their hearts into?
Combining these questions, my personal subjective view is:
An internet meme that exploded in popularity like Guga should essentially belong to a kind of "public domain copyright." She is like the "water and air" of our cyberspace, birthed and nurtured together by the emotions of countless netizens and the fan works of creators. Everyone shares her with zero barriers and feels the healing comfort she brings. When such a decentralized community crystallization is suddenly registered as an exclusive copyright by ByteDance, it feels like someone forcibly bottled up the air we all breathe and slapped an exclusive label on it.
What do you all think? Let me know your thoughts in the comments 👇
#咕咕嘎嘎 #Gugugaga #ググガガ #구구가가 #AICopyright #InternetCulture #ByteDance #ArknightsEndfield #seedance2 #DerivativeWorks #FanCreation