Hayyyyyy. How'd Pedobear get into the mascot lineup for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics in this highly esteemed Polish newspaper (hi-res scan JPEG)? Who cares! Buzzfeed article, and more here about the pedoshop disaster. Anything's possible on the internet, maybe the whole thing's a hoax, but it looks like this /b/eautiful art really did get published in Poland.
Update: More online news coverage indicates this really happened. LOL. And BB moderator Antinous points out that a sports blog in Spain did the same thing, even straightfacedly crediting the guy who altered the image as the artist behind the official mascot drawings. (via @veronica, @jpdef)
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Thats fricking hilarious ...
The Olympics are the biggest, most expensive joke around.
I live in Vancouver, its Fing shameful.
I hope the rest of the world is embarrassed by my city and what the Olympics have done.
Fake. Shopped from fan art:
http://www.spikecomix.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=3&pos=2
Just wanted to point out the previous boing boing article on the real mascots, designed by Meomi.
Of course it was 'shopped from the official art -- but it looks like the modified, pedo-fied art DID run in the Polish newspaper in question. So the story does not appear to be fake.
This appears to have been the source image, upon which pedobear was likely overlayed by some 3rd party:
http://www.spikecomix.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=3&pos=2
That's what you get for selecting imagery for your paper via google image search...
added the previously link, thanks!
Actually, I think it's conceivable that the Polish newspaper used the fanart instead of a more accurate image. After all, it does show up on the first page of Google Image search results for "Vancouver 2010 mascots."
Original pedoshopper (http://mbarrick.livejournal.com/) says he's been alerted that a Spanish Newspaper has used the image also ...
No Pedobear page on Wikipedia? What's up with that?
Haha! That'll teach them to get their pics from google.
You know some Polish guy is sitting around laughing at how he got away with it.
being polish...must...resist...urge...to correct...
i don't know where the "highly esteemed" came from. it's a local paper, with circulation of about 30.000, never heard of it to be "esteemed".
nooo....
its not a hoax, and its no a "highly esteemed Polish newspaper" - the only thing this is, is a way to bust the circulation ;]
Of those mascots, Pedobear is the least creepy. The one with the ear muffs is pointing to his crotch!
Other Polish newspapers are covering the mistake from the other paper: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://www.pardon.pl/artykul/10804/&sl=pl&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8
*MUST* *HAVE* *TSHIRT* *OF* *THIS* (I live in Vancouver, and I would wear it everywhere.)
I'm not ashamed and I live in the Lower Mainland.
@DataShade - pardon.pl is not a newspaper...
RULE #1
I think Pedobear belongs with this ragtag group. He too is pointing at his crotch.
If I had the inclination I would go to the protest on Friday with a placard of Pedobear, and shout: "more pedobear! More....."
I think "Antinous" is on to something. These so-called "mascots" are wearing no pants! It is really shameful the great Olympics should stoop to having such representatives, even if one of them is from Poland.
Foreshadowing from said previous boingboing article's comments,
"on 17 posted by rollerskater , November 29, 2007 9:52 PM
holy shyte, it's PEDOBEAR!!! keep your children away!!"
Nope, its official now... http://communities.canada.com/theprovince/blogs/olympicscity/archive/2010/02/07/polish-newspaper-accidentally-makes-pedobear-olympic-mascot.aspx
I thought that damn bear had lost the ability to make me giggle after all these years...
What's so controversial about this? What percentage of the Polish population (or any population) would recognize a "Pedobear"? I guess you have to spend time on websites where pedophiles tend to congregate...
This Spanish sports blog is actually crediting Pedobear by name.
And...the guy who created it.
OMG this is hilarious.
Rule #34
It takes someone with the name "Pretzellogic" to accuse people of being pedophiles for knowing what pedobear is. Hey guess what Pretzellogic? With your reasoning, you too are now a pedophile!
I'm sorry, but I can't stand for this witch hunt type thinking.
Yay for Pedobear. For fans of Meomi's kickass Olympics mascots (especially the sasquatch Quatchi), check out my QuatchiWatch blog: http://quatchiwatch.wordpress.com/
Thats the pet.... i saw it in the Sonic the hedgedog in the winter games (game for iphone)
Some laugh at what character was added. Other laugh at the copyright issue. If that paper did any research to ask the artist about permission to publish his art then it would be clear it wasn't even the original artist's work (which in it self had no permit from IOC).
Remember Bert?
http://www.boingboing.net/2001/10/12/the-nyt-have-tracked.html
What did Pedobear say to the other mascot when he'd been caught playing hide the salami with Miga?
So Sumi...
(also this is the 4rth link when you google 2010 mascots)
What copyright issue? Parody is protected (he needed no permit from the IOC) and the paper, thinking it was the official mascot, would have been protected by fair-use had it been the real mascot- regardless of where they downloaded it from (fair-use doctrine deliberately makes it so that the source copied from is a non-issue). If anything, this is a completely inadvertent case of unauthorized copying, and even if the original creator wanted to pursue the matter, I doubt it would go anywhere.
I'm disappointed. Where are the Polish jokes?
This is a beautiful moment for the Internet.
Wow, 4chan just keeps pushing the boundaries of trolling. IRL Newspaper! Anonymous deserves an internet medal. Win is you.
pedobear is never, ever funny.
pedobear is a mascot for kiddie porn.
xeni, have you even seen what happens on /b/ when pedobear is op'ed? it's a signal for people who have it to post their cache of child images. every single one of those KIDS was forced to make kiddie porn, maybe raped. funny? /b/eautiful?
please use your head and your voice, boingboing. pedobear is not a joke.
I HAD no idea what "pedobear" was until today, and it isn't funny. Some witches deserve to be hunted...especially when they're "anonymous".
yes, simonemarie and pretzellogic, the internet is serious business.
pedo means fart in spanish.
i really hope they change the name!
Copyright laws are different in every country. Fair use is not an international standard. I don't know if more than USA has it, and this is an issue between Canada and Poland. And I'm not resident of any of the mentioned countries. VANOC implicitly say they won't pursue non commercial fan art of the logos. Although I'm not clear about what deal they have with the artists.
It did happen in Poland, but it's not "highly esteemed" newspaper. Just some local newspaper. "Olsztyn Newspaper". Olsztyn is 200.000 inhabitants city.
Eh... no. Have you actually been on 4chan? Pedobear IS just a joke, not a pedophile bat signal.
Yes, I've seen what happens when people on /b/ post Pedobear and ask for CP. They get a hundred images of Captain Picard. The bear didn't take pictures of kids, he's just a Japanese character who got adopted by the internet as a joke about the fact that everything from Japan HAS to have something to do with rape. Its a joke. Deal with it.
And pretzellogic: you are the best trollbait I've seen in weeks.
I would like to convey that its a symbol and therefore can carry meanings to different people. I for one do not associate Pedobear with child pornography, its just a meme and it is more a mascot of 4chan (sort of like Yotsuba and Moot which are other 4chan mascots).
Also, I believe the particular threads you are thinking of are the infamous USB Line threads which didn't use Pedobear as a symbol but rather a usb cable to hide the real content of the thread.
simonemarie,
"have you even seen what happens on /b/ when pedobear is op'ed? it's a signal for people who have it to post their cache of child images."
Have you witnessed such behaviour, or are you just waving the panic flag?
Poland be trollin'.
http://www.bilder-hochladen.net/files/b1sf-5-jpg-nb.html
a german newspaper did the same :D
look: 4chan is the basement of the internet-- it's underground. the language of images that anonymous uses is complex and often nonsensical to the outsider. 4chan has its own vocabulary and its own sense of humor and justice-- the racier the better. i've laughed hard at it, i've seen anon attack huge corporations to defend internet rights, i've seen them take down cat killers and potential child-abusers. it's a /b/rotherhood open to anyone with the guts to be there. that's why it's such a great meme generator.
on one hand, this is great. free speech is awesome.
on the other hand, it's anarchic. there are very few rules, and the rules that DO exist get broken every single night after moot goes to bed. people take advantage of 4chan, using anonymity to share their images of racism, gore, and child pornography. pedobear is one of these. absolutely and without a doubt: i am not waving the panic flag. what's horrible is that these images inadvertently become part of the general 4chan vocabulary, mixed in with LOLcats and boxxy, and people seem to think it's ok. it's not ok, it's not funny, it's kiddie porn.
boingboing's responsibility (and our own), is to remember ethical boundaries and decide when they're being crossed. pedobear may not look the part, but he stands for pedophilia-- and that's not funny.
Not fake.
http://i46.tinypic.com/2a0jbbl.jpg
I'm still with you on this one. I don't think it's a good idea to draw attention to something like pedobear with all the horrible baggage attached to the image (Perhaps we're completely wrong, and Captain Picard is all you'll ultimately end up with, but I'm not going to start clicking on images of pedobear on 4chan just to see if I'm right.)
It is not Pedobear.
It is Kumah in made in 2ch and is nothing to with pedo.
Other country people has misunderstanding.
A Dutch public broadcaster (AVRO) published it in their magazine: http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/826491/93f0c859/pedobear_everywhere.html
^_^
seriously... why are these journalists getting paid haha.
This is a conspiracy by Desu Toys for pedobearplush.com.
yes this is meerly running bear. see him walk!
yes this is meerly running bear. see him walk!
In my television guide the same image appears. Fools. But at least they don't mention Pedobear as a mascot.
the vancouver pedobear image also got published in a Lithuanian magazine. i was very surprised but i have a copy so...