Lauren the Mortician and CopyFraud
What happens when copyright takedown requests are weaponized (allegedly)
For the record: this is an opinion piece by me and is commentary and education about CopyFraud.
CopyFraud is something that has been brewing with a lot of influencers but has really come to the forefront recently with Lauren the Mortician and her lawyer, Jeannette Braun allegedly filing copyright takedown requests in bad faith (in my opinion).
I was going to wait until Tuesday to discuss this for Copyright Corner but it’s such a huge topic I know I’d quickly reach the email limit and not be able to cover everything I want to so here we are with a special edition.
This post is going to be text-heavy and light on photos for obvious reasons…
What is CopyFraud?
CopyFraud is when someone files a false copyright takedown request. Such as claiming content is yours when it is not, filing against something that is fair use or other abuses of the DMCA act. It’s been a growing problem, especially on social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok but also on places like reddit.
Currently there are no real legal ramifications for filing false takedown notices so the abuse of a tool meant to genuinely help creators is being weaponized. In most cases, it’s often to get criticism silenced or just being used as a weapon.
However, with the recent uptick in abuse of DMCA takedown requests there is an uprising of people calling for Congress to address CopyFraud, in particular outline punishments for filing fictitious takedown requests beyond the vague references to perjury.
Why do I care? Because the more this method is abused, the less of a valuable tool it is when it is actually needed. Photographers and artists need this tool to be taken seriously for when our content is stolen without our permission.
Lauren the Mortician
This has nothing really to do with Photo Stealers but I feel some context is needed to get the full story regarding the recent issue with CopyFraud taking place.
Lauren the Mortician is a well-known “influencer” mostly on Tiktok but she is on all the social media platforms. She initially talked about her time as a mortician and her stories were morbid and cautionary and leaned into the creepy side of TikTok. Eventually Lauren would expand into giving advice on things she would/wouldn’t do as a “scarred mortician” implying that she had seen a death due to the thing happening in the video.
Most commonly, Lauren would lean into talking about child and baby safety - often duetting videos on TikTok after her followers tagged her in the comments saying “Beetlejuice” and tagging her name. Lauren would then explain why said activity is risky and cite her mortician history as a reason why she should be a trusted person to listen to on the matter.
The types of things that Lauren covered/talked about were things like don’t let your kids sleep in a walled air mattress on a pool because if that fucker deflates your kid could drown easily, why RVs are death traps, what foods are choking hazards with children, and other viral videos that have flagrant child safety issues. Lauren generally cited her credentials when stating why xyz is a bad idea and could lead to injury or death of a child.
CopyFraud Abound
In August Lauren and a well known child seat safety expert Jamie Grayson had a disagreement. There’s a whole huge drawn out saga here but basically allegedly Lauren questioned his authority on car seat safety after she allegedly said a certain style of car seat was unsafe and Jamie disagreed. Jamie is dual certified in Child Passenger Safety in both the US and Canada and has been a valued source for many years. Lauren alleged that her experience “as a mom” and a mortician trumped his certifications.
After a bit of back and forth it appeared that things had died down but then in November-ish it heated back up when Lauren allegedly insinuated something gross regarding why Jamie’s into baby items as a gay man on her Facebook and while a guest on a podcast called Dumb Blonde. While Jamie wasn’t named it was VERY easy to identify who Lauren was talking about.
LONNNNNG story short-er but basically a LOT of people - small and bigger personalities on TikTok - started discussing the matter. More things came to light. Some used photos of Lauren, some did not. People began to dig into Lauren in other areas and other things came to light. There were a lot of people posting/talking about what was going on and about Lauren’s history and background as is usual when someone starts to go viral for not-great reasons.
Eventually Lauren hired an IP attorney who is kind of the “it” lawyer currently among TikTokers, especially allegedly those that want to stifle public criticism about them, Jeannette Braun. Often, allegedly, Jeannette isn’t even barred in the states in which she is practicing on behalf of her clients, such as in this case where Lauren does not allegedly live in a state where Jeannette is currently licensed to practice, nor do most of the creators that have had actions taken against them by Jeannette.
Jeannette started sending DMCA’s on Lauren’s behalf and often the videos weren’t always including any of Lauren’s intellectual property (like this one which was allegedly taken down by a DMCA claim) or they were duet-ed through TikTok, which is an option a creator can turn off and on and is built into the platform and is allowed.
Note: Even *if* Laurens content was included there are times that using copyrighted materials is Fair Use and commentary, criticism and news reporting is all Fair Use.
As with most social media platforms, once you get so many claims against you for copyright infringement, some of these creators are starting to lose their accounts. Jamie Grayson’s entire account got deleted from TikTok due to the multiple copyright claims, which in my opinion were made in bad faith.
Another creator, Caffeinated Kitti, not only got her own takedown notices (which got her Facebook Page taken down) but also had two wellness checks called in on her by Lauren and her lawyer which is yet another bad faith use, in my opinion, of the system and resources in place for wellness checks. Kitti had the “beetlejuice” calling card long before Lauren (much like Ask a Mortician predated Lauren’s “Morbid Minute”) so she originally weighed in due to being confused with Lauren at times. She also exposed some history on Lauren which appears Lauren didn’t care for so it may have been, in my opinion, why they went the extra spicy mile for Kitti.
Most recently, the Do We Know Them podcast made an episode about the initial drama and have made subsequent updates when getting threats from the lawyer regarding their video. It’s long but worth the watch because they dig into everything Jeanette has done and how they believe, as do I, these CopyFraud notices are done to silence the commentary about her and her clients. In their latest update they do state that Jeannette wants to go to court over this.
Paige Christie, Bekah Day and countless others have also been victims of CopyFraud in this case but I simply don’t have the time or space to get into all the people that have been hit with a fraudulent DMCA smack.
I am very curious to see how this all pans out because eventually, I believe, Jeannette is going to come against a creator that is willing to fight and the issue will eventually result in a court case that may help start setting more legal precedent against CopyFraud.
I think I’ve established why in my opinion, CopyFraud is at play here and why it’s extremely problematic. Do you think that copyright infringement takedowns are being weaponized here to get content removed that the creator doesn’t want seen?
I think the copyright stuff is being weaponized, I’ve seen a lot of creators have their work taken down for what I feel is no reason. TikTok doesn’t seem to give consistent answers on why accounts are taken down.