Full disclosure and updates on the smol bun image's IP rights.
The latest tl;dr: we are back to square one.
As some of you who followed the bun since day 1 might have noticed, the "owner" that myself was in touch with ("B") wasn't the first person to post the image online. There was another post, the earliest both myself and the verifier could find, created 2 days before B's ("D-2"). When being asked about it by the verifier I hired, B provided a file and a screenshot from their PC that shows the file was created before D-2.
The interesting part?
When the verifier said they will come back in 5 minutes and stopped the call, this is when B deleted their tg, cutting themselves off from me and the @bunsolanacto team who invited B to have a look on the inside. Both myself and the verifier thought this was suspicious, but didn't draw the conclusion at that point.
Then, yesterday when I shared the news of the donation and meme contest through the only open channel I have with B, trying to bring up the IP topic again as I thought it's a good time, I got blocked again with no response to my message.
What made my alarm rang is how bluntly they reacted. I am not saying people can't choose to be blunt, especially this is a broken relationship I'm trying to mend. But an alarm is an alarm.
It turns out the proof provided by B is not bulletproof. In fact, the screenshot has somehow shown exactly how the date can be tampered with. While I feel truly sorry that B have been harassed by malicious actors and had to delete their socials, I'm also happy that they realized they can't overstay the welcome they don't deserve.
Both B and the D-2 source are meme accounts that at this point I believe neither of them are the original.
So, back to square one. I will keep searching for the real owner and I hope whoever knocks on my door in the future would realize how serious I am. No tricks.
And for the $bun s, you are the true nobles here. Love you all.