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Reddit Lawyers Force Founder to Redact 'WallStreetBets' From Miami Event (yahoo.com) 43

Posted by BeauHD from the would-you-look-at-that dept.
Reddit has forced Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of infamous r/WallStreetBets, to strip the WallStreetBets name from an upcoming Miami conference after legal threats citing trademark rights. According to a press release, it's the "first known case of a social media company enforcing trademark control over a user-created community." From the report: After years of litigation, courts ultimately sided with Reddit in a decision now referred to as the "Rogozinski Ruling," a precedent that grants platforms broad authority to assert trademark ownership over user-created communities. That ruling now forms the basis for Reddit's demand that the words "WallStreetBets" be physically removed from the event. "They aren't afraid of the name being used," said Rogozinski. "If they were, they'd have to sue the internet. What they're afraid of is the creator hanging out with his creation. They're afraid of the community's independence. And they're afraid it's evolved into something bigger than a subreddit."

The irony is difficult to ignore. The original subreddit counts around three million subscribers, while conservative estimates place more than seven million WallStreetBets participants spread across other platforms. For a movement that built its reputation confronting corporate overreach, Reddit's decision to extend its authority beyond the confines of its web-based platform, reaching into real-world gatherings to police culture it did not create, risks stirring a hornet's nest with a long memory and a track record of collective action.

The event formerly known as WallStreetBets Live, will proceed as scheduled on January 28-30 in Miami. In compliance with Reddit's demands, all references to the name will be physically redacted on-site. "Reddit's lawyers did one thing right," Rogozinski continued. "They proved exactly why we need a decentralized future. This event has become a live case study in what's broken about modern social media. Platforms can deplatform creators, and now, with courts backing them, they can appropriate what users build."
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Reddit Lawyers Force Founder to Redact 'WallStreetBets' From Miami Event More

Reddit Lawyers Force Founder to Redact 'WallStreetBets' From Miami Event

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  • Rogozinski only now stating the obvious? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ffkom ( 3519199 ) on Monday January 26, 2026 @09:58PM (#65951386)
    It's not like centralized platforms absorbed the work of "volunteers" for profit only recently... they have done so for many years. So yeah, if you are living off "content creation", you should definitely invest some effort and/or money into establishing your own or at least a decentralized platform.

    • Re:Rogozinski only now stating the obvious? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Hadlock ( 143607 ) on Monday January 26, 2026 @10:21PM (#65951410) Homepage Journal

      The people who built/run the Nebula online streaming video to shy away from this sort of thing are probably feeling pretty good about themselves right now. Youtube video creators are probably sweating bullets right now. A lot of people "invested" in youtube channels over the years, according to this, youtube owns the IP (or at least, branding) of channels like Mr. Beast, Veratasium, etc etc

      • I must have had my head under a rock or something cuz this is the first I've heard of Rogozinski but based on what little I've read .. and seeing your comment Yeah, I think you're 100% right - the question is will Nebula, Patreon, and others who have increasingly become ways for notable creators to host and monetize outside of yootoob's functional monopoly - with this ruling, how long before YooToob makes a move like that exactly as you say .. because ... enshittification.

        Truth is that enshittification as a

    • Social structures are all about fucking over the little guy. Best of luck starting a new community platform without big money backing, and even then, best of luck.

  • Aaron Swartz (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Valgrus Thunderaxe ( 8769977 ) on Monday January 26, 2026 @09:58PM (#65951388)
    Would not have approved of this lawsuit.

  • So Reddit wants to own everything good created by their users but avoid any responsibility for anything bad created by their users via section 230.

    Bad ruling by the court. They should be required to take the bad with the good or not get to control any of it. We know they'd take option 2 if the court has made a better ruling.

    • Came here to say this as well. Privatize the profits, socialize the losses. Welcome to late stage capitalism.

      • The rich fucking over the poor is much older than that term you use.

        • The rich fucking over the poor is much older than that term you use.

          While true, it's easy to call it late stage when technology is helping the rich fuck us over in new, creative, and admittedly impressive ways. In fact, they're fucking the poor over so well that they'll ultimately end up fucking themselves as well, they're just too blinded by greed to see that particular moment coming.

  • Grabbing trademark created by a user... (Score:5, Informative)

    by flug ( 589009 ) on Monday January 26, 2026 @11:03PM (#65951448)
    It looks like specifically what happened is that Reddit filed for the trademark "WallStreetBets" in 2021. Rogozinsky then filed to have the trademark suspended or revoked - presumably on the grounds that he and not Reddit had created it.

    And recently Rogozinsky lost this case. This establishes the trademark WallStreetBets as owned by Reddit (for the uses for which they filed), and given that, they can control use of the trademark. By, for example, banning its use by others for whatever reason - the reason doesn't matter, as they own the trademark.

    What I think it specifically unusual about this is that Reddit didn't create this intellectual property, nor did anyone employed by them. So it is hard to even understand on what basis the have standing to claim the copyright above the person who actually coined the name.

    The reason might be somewhere in the legal gobbledygook we all have to read & sign when registering an account with Reddit. Aside from specifically assigning away these rights, it's hard to imagine the basis for just grabbing them from the actual creator.

    But I haven't tracked down nor read the actual case, so that is just speculation.

    The trademark filings & other info for these marks can be found here:

    - https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNu... [uspto.gov]

    - https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNu... [uspto.gov]

    • Re:Grabbing trademark created by a user... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Monday January 26, 2026 @11:20PM (#65951476)

      Creation established copyright as per the Berne convention, social media site ToS notwithstanding... which doesn't matter here.

      The trademark of 'WallStreetBets' was established by using it commercially, which happened the moment Reddit inserted ad content as someone surfed the subreddit.

      Which sucks, is unfair, etc... but also American law.

      • and can thus be ignored everywhere else in the world.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by mjwx ( 966435 )

          and can thus be ignored everywhere else in the world.

          The problem is that this kind of thing gets them into even greater hot water in countries with civilised law.

          By claiming ownership, they're effectively admitting that they're a publisher, meaning they'll be bound by laws regarding publishing and broadcasting. They've just given up the "we're not responsible, all the content is user created" defence when it comes to violating broadcast or publishing laws. That excuse was skating on some very thing ice as it was.

  • It's not every day you see somebody use the courts to pound a blunt screwdriver into their own nuts. I hope the lawyers are OK.

  • important context (Score:3, Informative)

    by ivvrish ( 10502943 ) on Monday January 26, 2026 @11:24PM (#65951482)
    some missing and perhaps important context here is that Rogozinski was ousted from the subreddit in 2020 "In 2020 the original founder (after being gone for years and did nothing to contribute to the sub), along with a couple of mods, attempted to monetize the sub for personal gains. Users and other mods fought back. Hundreds of users got mass banned for speaking out, mods who spoke out got removed as mods. With some help from users, mods found precedent of another sub creator getting banned for trying to monetize a sub and sent plea to Reddit admins. Reddit admins banned offenders and gave sub back to the good mods." per https://www.reddit.com/r/walls... [reddit.com]
  • this seems unreasonable? the court decided that because terms of service agreements im guessing; but all uses and communities are not the same thing what if this was a subreddit of a charity or something? or a person or a tiny religion? how do you copyright or trademark something as nebulous as a community? its not a website or brand its just a forum that has a name

    • The law is about screwing you over, which to the law is perfectly reasonable.

    • This non-lawyer believes both copyright and trademark are power-grabs , available only to wealthy elite and thieving common Angle-Saxon word-strings for private gain. Before Apple was a computer you picked it from a tree and ate it .."I ate the apple". Before Amazon sold dildos the name pointed to a river in South America or gorgeous Scythian women warriors. Language words and short phrases are property of "the commons"; that fact destroys the concept of verbal trademark. Companies (

  • Is anyone going to explain (please please) what WallStreetBets is all about ?

    I suppose I could just scroll on by, but it's nice when posters add some meaning to their stories.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      WallStreetBets, often abbreviated as WSB, is a subreddit where users discuss stock and options trading, known for its high-risk strategies and colorful language. It gained fame for its role in the GameStop short squeeze in early 2021, where retail investors significantly impacted stock prices. Wikipedia

    • Re:Er, WTF is WallStreetBets ? (Score:4)

      by FictionPimp ( 712802 ) on Tuesday January 27, 2026 @09:59AM (#65952066) Homepage

      It's a tool where internet people try to convince other internet people to help pump a stock so they can dump it.

  • Or how to scare away your most loyal user base.

    • Anybody who is loyal to reddit deserves the deep rogering they're about to receive. Reddit is a turd palace filled with turds.

  • Shorting of Reddit shares coming in 3...2...1.... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Computershack ( 1143409 ) on Tuesday January 27, 2026 @07:07AM (#65951878)
    This could end up being quite expensive....for Steve Huffman. The WSB mob are renown for setting fire to money to financially assassinate those they disagree with.
  • The business model for so-called social media is for the users to work for free and you don't own your own content.

    Reddit [redditinc.com]: “When Your Content is created with or submitted to the Services, you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable, and sublicensable license to use, copy, modify, adapt, prepare derivative works of, distribute, store, perform, and display Your Content”

  • Because of inertia people while whine and moan but do nothing else of substance.

  • All your Wallstreetbets are belong to us!

  • Reddit is in decline and has been so for years. Hope they go the way of (old) Digg.

  • This may be the best-attended event they could have ever anticipated.

  • If Reddit is claiming Trademark on the subreddit name, does that equate to ownership? If so, does that mean Section 230 protections no longer apply?

    Go wild folks!

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