Pepe the Frog poster costs InfoWars website $15,000

Cartoonist to reclaim character in settlement

Pepe the Frog’s status as an altright symbol may be in danger.

Right-wing conspiracy theorist website InfoWars agreed to settle a copyright infringement suit for $15,000 and a promise to never use the melancholy frog again after Pepe’s creator – cartoonist Matt Furie – took InfoWars to court.

Pepe is a frog cartoon used in online memes from Nicki Minaj to Wendy’s. Donald Trump Jr. deployed the frog in an Instagram post called “The Deplorables.”

Pepe was co-opted by the alt-right in memes invoking the Klu Klux Klan and Nazis on websites such as 4chan. Pepe was declared a “hate symbol” by the Anti-Defamation League in 2016.

Furie’s lawsuit involves a promotional InfoWars poster showing Pepe the Frog alongside InfoWars leader Alex Jones, President Donald Trump, altright provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, online personalities Diamond and Silk and conservative consultant Roger Stone.

Furie wants to take Pepe back and divorce the frog from its association with the alt-right. His campaign includes a zine of Pepe images that preach love.

Though InfoWars was forced to pay the profits it gained from the poster, the website said the settlement “clearly represents a strategic victory for Alex Jones.”

“They would have made more money if they went and waitressed with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for a few months,” InfoWars attorney Robert Barnes said in a statement. “So we made our point.”

Furie will donate $1,000 of the earnings to the conservation group Save the Frogs.

MATT FURIE VIA AP Matt Furie unintentionally created a monster when his Pepe the Frog went from a popular Internet meme to an anti-Semitic symbol of the alt-right.