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Tung Tung Tung Sahur (Triple T) was created in 2025 by an Indonesian user known as Noxa using OpenAI’s image-generation tool, and the character now sits at the centre of an international legal fight over AI copyright. The core question is whether the brief human input that produced Triple T — court documents say the character took roughly 15 minutes and seven prompts — qualifies as "human authorship" under US law. That standard, and a 2025 United States Copyright Office report on AI-assisted works, will shape who can claim and monetise viral, AI-born memes.
Brain rot is one of the first highly visible manifestations of a much larger transformation: internet native creativity can now become global almost instantly, while the people who originate it can remain economically invisible.
Eben Jeda, co-founder of Mementum Lab
Key takeaways
- Tung Tung Tung Sahur (Triple T) was created in 2025 by an Indonesian teen using OpenAI’s image-generation tool and has amassed hundreds of millions of views online.
- Spyder Games LLC and Speedy Simulator Gaming LLC — owners of Do Big Studios — sued French creative agency Mementum, which represents Noxa, in the US Northern District of California over use of Triple T in a Roblox game.
- Court documents show Triple T was produced in about 15 minutes using seven prompts; Mementum issued a September 2025 cease-and-desist and pursued a takedown under the EU Digital Services Act.
- The dispute tests the United States Copyright Office’s 2025 guidance that copyright protects "original expression" created "by a human author" but not "purely AI-generated material."
Table of contents
Who is suing whom and why it matters
The dispute now before a federal court in the Northern District of California began when Spyder Games LLC and Speedy Simulator Gaming LLC — the companies behind Do Big Studios — included a recognizable Triple T character in a popular Roblox minigame. Do Big released the game in May 2025 and it quickly drew wide play.
Mementum, a French creative agency that represents the prompt author known as Noxa, sent a cease-and-desist letter in September 2025 and used the EU Digital Services Act to secure a takedown. When negotiations failed, Spyder and Speedy sued Mementum in the United States, arguing that copyright requires human authorship and that the level of human intervention here was too sparse to create protectable work.
Mementum counters that its client and the agency have rights to manage and monetise Triple T globally. The litigation therefore asks a US judge to decide whether short-form prompting and a selection from AI outputs can found exclusive rights in a character that has become a global cultural object.
The legal test: what 'human authorship' means now
US law grants copyright to works created by human authors. In 2025 the United States Copyright Office published guidance stressing that copyright protects "original expression" made "by a human author" and that "purely AI-generated material" falls outside protection unless human control over expressive elements is sufficient.
That report did not set a bright-line rule. Instead it advised case-by-case analysis — leaving courts to decide whether editing, curating or prompting counts as authorship. In this case, court filings disclosed that Triple T emerged after roughly 15 minutes of work and seven prompts, a level of intervention the defendants call minimal.
Aaron Moss, the copyright lawyer for Do Big, has argued in filings that typing a few words and choosing an output does not meet the threshold for authorship. Mementum’s counsel argues the agency and its client made creative choices and are entitled to protect and enforce the character outside the narrow US copyright frame.
Cross-border enforcement and alternative IP strategies
The dispute illustrates how a single meme can travel across legal regimes. Triple T was generated by a user in Indonesia, popularised in Latin America and is now the subject of actions in both the EU and the United States. Mementum used the EU Digital Services Act to remove the character from a platform edition and has mounted trademark and infringement claims in multiple jurisdictions.
Steven Stein of Greenberg Glusker, representing Mementum Lab in the US, says the agency’s strategy is to pursue multiple routes — not just copyright — to make AI-assisted creations protectable. That includes trademark theories and platform takedowns, which can be effective even when an author has not obtained a registered US trademark.
What creators and platforms stand to gain or lose
If courts treat minimal prompts and a selection from AI outputs as sufficient for copyright, prompt authors and the agencies that represent them could gain enforceable control over memes that previously circulated as commons. That would let originators or their representatives capture licensing revenue from Fortnite skins, Roblox avatars and other commercial uses.
If courts instead require substantial human creative choices, platforms and downstream creators who riff on viral characters may retain freedom to reuse, adapt and monetise those figures — preserving the distributed, participatory culture behind genres such as Italian brain rot. Either outcome will influence how platforms police content and how creators document the process of making AI-born work.
| Party | Role | Claim |
|---|---|---|
| Mementum / Mementum Lab | French creative agency representing Noxa | Seeks to control Triple T and enforce takedowns/trademark claims |
| Spyder Games LLC / Speedy Simulator Gaming LLC | Owners of Do Big Studios | Sued Mementum in Northern District of California, arguing no copyright exists |
| Noxa | Indonesian prompt author | Creator of Triple T via OpenAI image generation in 2025 |
What could move this either way
The case for
- A US court decision could create concrete criteria for when AI-assisted outputs receive copyright, reducing future uncertainty for creators and platforms.
- The litigation may encourage better record-keeping: prompt logs, intermediate edits and version histories that make human contributions auditable could become industry practice.
The case against
- A ruling that sparse prompts found ownership could concentrate rights with prompt authors or the agencies that commercialise them, limiting reuse by the wider creator community.
- Cross-jurisdictional enforcement — takedowns under the EU Digital Services Act versus US copyright doctrine — could produce conflicting outcomes and uneven protection worldwide.
What to be careful about
- Legal uncertainty about authorship leaves creators and platforms exposed to takedowns and litigation across multiple jurisdictions.
- A precedent recognising minimal prompting as ownership could shift economic value away from the many creators who build on memes toward the original prompter or their commercial representatives.
- Platform moderation and content removal based on divergent regional rules (EU DSA vs US copyright) can fragment the global circulation of cultural content.
The bottom line
The Triple T litigation is a test case for how law will treat the products of prompt-and-select workflows. The factual record — a creation disclosed as taking about 15 minutes using seven prompts — will be read against the Copyright Office’s 2025 guidance on human authorship. The outcome will either entrench a new class of protectable, AI-assisted works and the commercial pathways that sustain them, or it will preserve a looser commons for memetic culture and the many creators who repurpose and amplify those images. Either way, creators and platforms should begin preserving prompt logs and intermediate files now.
What to watch
- Watch for the Northern District of California's ruling in Spyder Games LLC and Speedy Simulator Gaming LLC v Mementum Lab; no date has been set.
- Watch for any US trademark filings by Mementum that claim rights in the Triple T character; no date has been set.
- Watch for settlement notices or appeals filings from Do Big Studios after the California court issues a decision; no date has been set.
Frequently asked questions
Who created Tung Tung Tung Sahur?
An Indonesian user known as Noxa created Tung Tung Tung Sahur in 2025 using OpenAI’s image-generation tool; the character has since been amplified into videos that together have hundreds of millions of views.
What is the legal question before the US court?
The court must decide whether the human input behind Triple T — disclosed in court filings as roughly 15 minutes of work and seven prompts — is enough to meet the United States Copyright Office’s 2025 test for "human authorship."
How have different jurisdictions been used in the dispute?
Mementum used the EU Digital Services Act to seek takedowns in Europe and has pursued trademark and infringement strategies internationally, while Spyder and Speedy sued in the Northern District of California over copyright claims.
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