Complete article of SCP-173, as of early February 2022.

SCP-173 is the first piece of containment fiction written in the SCP format, prior to it gaining that nomenclature.^[1]http://scparchives.bluesoul.net/history.html It is one of the embryonic works of containment fiction and arguably the most important and influential work of the entire genre.

SCP-173 was originally posted anonymously on 4chan’s /x/ board by Moto42 (then credited as “S S Walrus”) on June 22, 2007.^[2]http://scparchives.bluesoul.net/x/scp/140042.html 

Izumi Kato is the artist responsible for the sculpture used as the primary photo of SCP-173,^[3]http://izumikato.com/Untitled-2004 and Keisuke Yamamoto is the photographer. Kato has given specific permission and conditions that it is allowed to be used from on SCP. As part of this agreement it is not legal to make commercial derivatives of the SCP-173 image.^[4]https://web.archive.org/web/20211122010852/http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-1016698/response-from-izumi-kato-re:173

SCP-173 has the most derivative works of any piece of containment fiction, being featured in short films, video games, artwork, and other artistic mediums.

History

Posted at 01:40 on June 22, 2007, and with the subject header “From the Files of Site 19”, SCP-173 represents the genesis of the containment fiction genre. Replies on the thread were generally positive, though with some mixed reviews.^[5]http://scparchives.buesoul.net/history.html

The article gave the genre the conventions of format, including the designation (item) number, the “special containment procedures”, description, and the lab-report like perspective.

Image Removal

“Is nothing sacred anymore? What next, 173’s pic?”^[6]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-76858/scp-682#post-4752868 — DarthAlex314 on SCP-682’s image change, 2020

SCP-173’s image was removed via unanimous vote^[7]http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-14472723/voting-removing-scp-173-s-image-untitled-2004 from the SCP Foundation Wiki on February 13, 2022.^[8]https://archive.fo/F5v0N^[9]https://archive.fo/AcAgm A discussion on O5 Command began on January 30, 2022, in which there was nearly unanimous assent in favor of the image’s removal.^[10]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-14468376/discussion-removing-scp-173-s-image-untitled-2004 SCP-173’s image was not replaced by request of the original author of SCP-173, Moto42, in order “to allow everyone to envision SCP-173 for themselves, instead of there being a singular, definitive, official ‘SCP-173′”.^[11]https://archive.fo/rAnXt#selection-1199.127-1199.250 A community art event was promoted, celebrated, and featured in lieu of Untitled 2004‘s presence on the SCP Wiki.^[12]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/peanut-gallery

From the announcement:^[13]https://archive.fo/rAnXt#selection-1217.0-1217.133

We thank the SCP Community for being as wonderful and creative as it is, and apologize for the necessary removal of the iconic image. As we move forward, we hope that this event will help bring the site closer together, and inspire more art in the future.

The reasons for the image removal are two-fold: legal difficulty and ethical considerations.

Legal Difficulty

This was due to a desire by the SCP Wiki staff to have all content on the site comport to the Creative Commons By-Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 (CC BY-SA 3.0) license, writing that “it is also the only image on the site that is not CC-BY-SA 3.0 compliant.”^[14]https://archive.fo/rAnXt#selection-1169.163-1169.235. The staff wrote that it was becoming increasingly difficult to police merchandise in violation of Izumi Kato’s terms, the legal confusion that SCP-173’s image created for third-party participants in the SCP Wiki, such as producers of merchandise, being an ongoing struggle.^[15]https://archive.fo/rAnXt

Ethical Considerations

In the site forum announcement, a representative of staff cites the ongoing abuse of Izumi Kato’s terms of use for Untitled 2004 as a reason to remove it from the site:^[16]https://archive.fo/rAnXt#selection-1177.0-1185.286

Licensing aside, Untitled 2004’s usage on the Wiki is also an ethical issue. Izumi Kato did not intend nor ask for his art to be used as an SCP, and the meaning and purpose of Untitled 2004 has been, in some ways, permanently tainted by its use in the article. Kato kindly and retroactively allowed its use for SCP-173 in 2014 on condition, but it was clear he was not happy with the situation. Additionally, his art’s been exploited by third parties trying to profit off of SCP, which has likely caused him much distress.

As such, we believe the most correct course of action in this situation is to remove Untitled 2004 from SCP-173. Although this process has been delayed significantly, the longer we wait, the more harm is done to Izumi Kato’s creative vision and the risk of legal issues becomes greater.

Trivia

• Common to creepypastas of the time, SCP-173 was questioned as real or a hoax when first released.^[17]https://archive.ph/KmpLl#selection-4465.10-4465.111^[18]https://archive.ph/KmpLl#selection-4949.10-4949.277
• “Untitled 2004” appears as part of an art exhibition called “Little Boy: The Arts of Japan’s Exploding Subculture”, which is an homage to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.^[19]https://archive.ph/yjxX1 It appears in a book of the same name.
• ^[20]https://www.amazon.com/Little-Boy-Japan%C2%92s-Exploding-Subculture/dp/0300102852 The art collection is meant to “[examine] the culture of postwar Japan through its arts and popular visual media.”^[21]https://archive.ph/83Nux
• Moto42 (S.S. Walrus) initially planned to release new SCPs on a weekly basis, but lost Internet access and interest in this project. He expected the standalone SCP-173 to be forgotten within a week.^[22]https://archive.ph/KCCqj
• A racist version of SCP-173 was posted in August 2007.^[23]WARNING, EXPLICITLY RACIST LANGUAGE: https://archive.ph/KmpLl#selection-5443.151-5443.166
• SCP-173 became memetic shortly after being posted, appearing in numerous threads on 4chan’s /x/ boards.^[24]Aside from being called “the SCP-173”, it was also initially known as “the Golem creepypasta”.((https://archive.ph/1ObaG^[25]https://archive.ph/JcRMM#selection-825.0-825.1947^[26]http://web.archive.org/web/20120620104050/http://sociopathdaily.blogspot.com/2007/12/creepypasta.html^[27]https://archive.ph/pT6La#selection-1269.88-1269.181^[28]http://scparchives.bluesoul.net/x/scp/588803.html
• Due to the ephemeral nature of 4chan, there was confusion as to what the original SCP-173 was. A seemingly-modified, “imposter” version of SCP-173, inferior by the emerging standards for clinical tone on /x/, was posted in many SCP-173 request threads. This version, deemed inferior by the /x/ community, was in actuality the original SCP-173 first posted by S. S. Walrus, that had been refined in the same original thread by anonymous user.^[29]http://scparchives.bluesoul.net/x/scp/140042.html^[30]https://archive.ph/JcRMM#selection-825.0-825.1947^[31]https://archive.ph/Sm2F6^[32]https://archive.ph/1ObaG^[33]https://archive.ph/pT6La#selection-2229.0-2229.1810 It can be seen posted as late as August 2008.^[34]http://scparchives.bluesoul.net/x/scp/861574.html
• SCP-173 has an entry on the Lost Media Wiki.^[35]https://lostmediawiki.com/SCP-173_(found_4chan_post;_2007)
• SCP-173 was suggested as the mascot for /x/, among other candidates.^[36]http://scparchives.bluesoul.net/x/scp/796967.html
• Moto42, posting on /x/ as “USS Walrus”, claimed that he had never seen the Dr. Who episode featuring the Weeping Statues, which SCP-173 has often been thought to be a knock-off of.^[37]https://archive.ph/1fgMl#selection-1046.0-1125.7
• An archived discussion page of SCP-173 on EditThis references an addendum that the author did not create.^[38]https://web.archive.org/web/20080423043418/http://www.editthis.info/scp_wiki/Talk:SCP-173 This addendum was the USAF “tale” that accompanied the original SCP-173 in the first /x/ post.^[39]https://archive.ph/QD9UF#selection-1539.0-1539.101
• On a later /x/ thread that reposted SCP-173, an anonymous user wrote in response: “One of the least original SCP out there. And that’s saying something”^[40]http://scparchives.bluesoul.net/x/scp/865902.html
• Prior to SCP-173’s image removal in February 2022, the following legal notice existed on the page: “The sculpture, its likeness, and the photograph have not been released under any Creative Commons license. Only the text of this article is released under Creative Commons. This sculpture and its likeness may not be used for commercial purposes under any circumstances. Izumi Kato has graciously chosen to allow the use of the image of “Untitled 2004” by the SCP Foundation and its fanbase for non-commercial purposes only.”^[41]https://archive.ph/Dpnyt#selection-1619.0-1621.250
• Potential litigation form Izumi Kato is highlighted as a reason to remove SCP-173’s image, but no such consideration is given to the photographer of “Untitled 2004”, Keisuke Yamamoto.
• S S Walrus/Moto42 can be seen participating in the original thread for SCP-173 on /x/ replying to praise and criticisms: “Sleep deprived first drafts tend to suck a bit. It’s meant to sound like an official report, and I’ll admit that english grammar isn’t my strongest subject. Thanks for all the positive responses.”

Quotes

“The initial appearance of SCP-173 was something really different to the /x/ community. Instead of being a basic story with a jump scare punchline, or a thing that made you feel squicked and scared, it was designed to make you wonder, and draw fear from that.” — History of the Universe, Part 1