Who owns Jeff the killer? What parts of him are and aren't public Domain?
For the sake of this, I will only be covering elements that are already iconic/in the minds of the public in relation to this character/story.
The iconic original image/appearance (as it is a product of multiple edits by multiple people from an image editing thread on 4chan) and pretty much every element of the 2011 creepypasta written by Travis Jordan, brother of GameFuelTv, except elements listed below.
Aren't public domain (elements created and owned by Sesseur):
the name "Jeff the Killer", Jeff's brother being named named Lou
Some elements, while they may have been introduced by Sesseur, are too general to be owned by him in relation to this character. These elements are the character being named Jeff and the character being a killer. As said before, a name like "Jeff" and a character being a killer or just way too general claimed ownership in relation to Jeff. There is also the aspect of his face being the way it is due to an accident. I would argue this is also way too general, as obviously his face got that way somehow, and the way as to how it happened is different. Within the original story video created Sesseur, the way his face was burned was by acid splashing on his face. In the 2011 story, however, his face is that way after him being drenched in bleach and alcohol and then being set on fire (the bleach is the part that turned his skin paper white). So I would say that as long as you're going with the way it happened in the 2011 story, then it would be public domain. Additionally, the aspect of Jeff's surname being "Woods" originates from the Creepypasta "homicidal Liu", in which they gave Lou the surname mentioned earlier and therefore, giving Jeff the surname as well. As of right now, I am unsure if the original author of "Homicidal Liu" concerns there work to be public domain, but I have sent them a message on their deviantART asking them about this question. Some people also make "Alan" his middle name. I have no idea where that comes from though.
So, does Sesseur own Jeff the Killer?
Generally, I would say no. He didn't create the original image, and The name of Jeff applied to this public domain image is too general for him to claim that he owns the character. Now, he definitely owns the moniker of "Jeff the killer" and the character of Liu, and as mentioned before, he did introduce the element of him being a killer and having a brother in the first place. But in terms of the general public's thinking of Jeff and his story, Sesseur doesn't own any of that. This isn't to downplay Sesseur's involvement, he really put in the stepping Stones of this character and of course created the widely famous moniker of "Jeff the killer". But, be that as it may, they're still just that, stepping stones. To say that Sesseur owns Jeff, in my opinion, is just false.
