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Revision as of 05:05, 22 October 2005 by Maestrosync (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff) The correct title of this article is eBaum's World. It appears incorrectly here due to technical restrictions.
eBaum's World (subtitled "Media for the Masses") is a popular website featuring videos, Macromedia Flash cartoons, and Flash games (all of which are taken from other sites), as well as other humor material also taken from other sites. The site was founded in 1998 by Eric "eBaum" Bauman (born 1980). The vice-president of the site is his father, Neil Bauman.
It is often criticized by people who point out that the entire site is composed of content taken from other Internet sources and rebranded, and that Bauman does not have the right to use the material or to profit from the sale of advertising space on web pages featuring the stolen content. Images and flash animations are modified to remove any original watermarks. In response to such criticisms, Bauman has claimed that he believes that most material on the Internet is public domain and that he is providing a service by making it all available in one spot, though why he chooses to rebrand it as if to appear as though the content was created by eBaum's World is unknown. Also, this claim is undermined by the fact that copyrighted material is hosted there, and the fact that any work is copyrighted unless explicitly stated as public domain. Many have likened Bauman's actions to outright theft, yet Bauman has not yet been convicted of copyright infringement. Some claim that this is due to his choice of content--almost invariably appropriated from small or independent sites, which lack the resources to successfully prosecute.
Viacom once threatened eBaum's World with a lawsuit, asking the website owner to remove material related to Judge Judy, Dr. Phil, Howard Stern and Tim Meadows. When another party asked that material related to Fred Rogers be removed, Bauman complied as well, believing that Rogers was not a fit subject for parody. Some of the content has been considered distasteful by many, including the "Epilepsy Test" (an animation constantly flashing black and white with the word 'epilepsy' on it), prank flash that is a parody of the Where's Waldo series and Pentagon Strike, which challenged the government's report of the Pentagon crash on 9/11. Bauman has complied with several of the requests to remove some of the content or place a warning on it, but he does not, in the eyes of many people, take criticism lightly. There is a section on the site called "Hate Mail" which exhibits emails "with all bad grammar and typos left intact" sent to him containing negative remarks by visitors.
eBaum's World is, in many people's minds, significant in Internet culture. It has several infamous features, such as "soundboards", which are pages with many recordings of celebrities saying words and phrases. Soundboards are widely believed to be one of the most popular features on the website and are often used for prank phone calls. In addition, the site features another section believed by some to be very popular as well called "Forum Fun", a series of images intended to be used on online forums (most, if not all of which are taken from other websites). In addition to these, there is a section for games, other images, animations, jokes, and other content (much, if not all, of which is taken from other websites). Since the site receives many emails with content to add, there is a section called "Moron Mail" for submissions that do not meet the Baumans' standards. There is a chatroom and store as well.
eBaum's World also features a very large forum community, home to thousands of members and over a million posts. In the forum there are areas to post pictures, videos, and high scores for games (among other great subforums). Content in the forums is either from other websites, or submitted by the forum user as his own, original work (some of which eBaum posts on his main page every friday).