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<title>Techdirt. Stories filed under &quot;moot&quot;</title>
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<pubDate>Wed, 7 Nov 2012 14:50:00 PST</pubDate>
<title>Did Some Web Designer Troll Rick Santorum? 4chan's Moot Pictured On Santorum's Website</title>
<dc:creator>Mike Masnick</dc:creator>
<link>http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121107/11151420962/did-some-web-designer-troll-rick-santorum-4chans-moot-pictured-santorums-website.shtml</link>
<guid>http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121107/11151420962/did-some-web-designer-troll-rick-santorum-4chans-moot-pictured-santorums-website.shtml</guid>
<description><![CDATA[ This one is just funny.  First noticed by folks on <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/4chan/comments/12s9r2/rick_santorum_uses_moots_image_in_a_promotion_on/" target="_blank">Reddit</a>, former Presidential candidate Rick Santorum -- perhaps most well known among internet kids for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campaign_for_%22santorum%22_neologism" target="_blank">Google bombing of his name</a> to associate it with... something unpleasant -- apparently has a picture of Chris Poole, better known as moot, the creator of the web's most popular home for internet trolls, 4chan (and yes, there's much more at 4chan, but... ).  
<center>
<a href="http://imgur.com/mE9Mt"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/mE9Mt.png" width=500 /></a>
</center>
The folks over at Betabeat investigated and <a href="http://betabeat.com/2012/11/why-is-former-presidential-candidate-rick-santorum-using-a-picture-of-4chan-founder-moot-on-his-website/" target="_blank">confirmed that a web design firm</a> built the site, though it's unclear if moot's picture was the work of a sneaky, trolling web designer... or just an attempt to find "regular-looking" people to populate Santorum's site.
<blockquote><i>
Patriot Voices used the startup <a href="http://www.nationbuilder.com/">Nation Builder</a>, a web tool kit for community organizers, as a platform for the site. A representative for Nation Builder told Betabeat that the site was designed by an outside designer at the Pittsburgh-based political consulting and&nbsp;advertising&nbsp;firm&nbsp;<a href="http://www.brabendercox.com/">Brabender Cox</a>.
<br /><br />
<a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/search?q=Premier+Election+Solutions">Dubbed</a> &#8220;the premier Republican spin doctors,&#8221; Brabender Cox has a longstanding history of working to promote Republican candidates. In addition to doing work for Mr. Santorum, they&#8217;ve also <a href="http://www.brabendercox.com/our-work.jsp">created</a> viral videos and advertising content for&nbsp;politicians&nbsp;like Republican Senator Tom Coburn and Republican Mayor of Indiana Greg Ballard.
</i></blockquote>
Betabeat reached out to the organization but hasn't heard back yet.
<br /><br />
Oh, and if you're wondering, it seems likely that the use of the work is copyright infringement.  It was pulled from Poole's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Poole" target="_blank">Wikipedia page</a>, and the image is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Moot_smiling_at_ROFLCon_II.jpg" target="_blank">Creative Commons licensed</a>, but part of that license is that attribution is required.  There doesn't seem to be any such attribution.  Oops.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121107/11151420962/did-some-web-designer-troll-rick-santorum-4chans-moot-pictured-santorums-website.shtml">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121107/11151420962/did-some-web-designer-troll-rick-santorum-4chans-moot-pictured-santorums-website.shtml#comments">Comments</a> | <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121107/11151420962/did-some-web-designer-troll-rick-santorum-4chans-moot-pictured-santorums-website.shtml?op=sharethis">Email This Story</a><br />
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