 The very first SCP ever written was created on June 22nd, 2007 as a post on 4chan. Now there's a lot of misinformation and lies floating around about this particular article, and because of this, some of you are very wrong about SCP-173. For the longest time, there was a case being made by the Wikidot administration that SCP-173 predated the Weeping Angels episode of Doctor Who, and if you're unfamiliar with what I'm talking about there, the important point is that that's just an episode of Doctor Who that featured a statue that moved when it wasn't being looked at, so if you know anything about 173, you kind of can get where they're coming from when talking about the comparisons. Now, this concept is not original. I just want to put that out there right now. Things that move when you aren't watching them have existed in folklore for centuries, but given that SCP-173 appeared around the same time, there has been a bit of debate in the past over the question of what inspired what. Thankfully, this question was answered in October of last year, that'd be 2018. It was then that the internet archive posted a collection of 4chan posts dated between 2006 and 2008, and it didn't take long for someone to dig up the original SCP-173 post. The post itself is quite short, and I'm going to read it right now, typos and all. Item number SCP-173 Special Containment Procedures Item SPC-173 is to be kept in a locked container at all times. When personnel must enter SCP-173's container, no fewer than three may enter at any time and the doors to be relocked behind them. At all times, two persons must be looking at SCP-173 until all personnel have vacated and relocked the container. Description Moved to Site-19, 1993. Little is known about the item number SCM-173's origins. It is constructed from concrete and rebar and was once painted with Krylon brand spray paint. SCP-173 is animate and malevolent. If given the chance, it will kill anyone within its line of sight. Its weakness, however, is that it does not move while being watched. Despite this paralysis, it is still highly dangerous, able to cover at least two meters in the literal blink of an eye. It typically kills by either snapping the victim's neck from behind or grabbing the victim's throat and strangling him. Whatever animates SCP-173 does not give it much force with which to break things. As seen above, a large room with unbarred windows is fully capable of containing it. Its grip, however, is unbreakable, as when it is not moving, the statue is as hard and strong as concrete. While left alone in its room, one can hear a stone on stone scraping from within that is believed to be the sound of SCP-173 moving about. The reddish brown substance on the floor is a combination of feces and blood. We don't know nor wish to find out where it comes from or how it arrives, but SCP-173's container will slowly fill with these substances. In order to ensure that bacterial growth within does not begin to damage the building it is contained in, and it maintains some level of sanitation, the enclosure must be cleaned on a bi-weekly basis. Now, interestingly considering the claims that it was made before the Weeping Angels episode, you can actually scroll down on the page and see people immediately making comparisons to the Doctor Who episode that came out about a week before this was written. While there's really no way to confirm one way or the other what the original author was inspired by, it seems pretty likely given the timing and the content that the piece was inspired by that episode of Doctor Who. Now, there's a few things of note here. First, the very first typo of SCP as SPC was literally the second time it was ever written down. Weirder still, there's actually an SCM typo in there you may have noticed as well, which no one ever seems to have repeated. I mean, if you compare the original draft to what is on the wiki now you'll see it's been cleaned up considerably. The typos are mostly gone, the grammar has improved a bit, the clinical tone was toughened up a bit. There's a couple of fun notes like the original version misspelled Krylon with a C instead of a K like the actual brand name. I really like the idea that its grip is unbreakable, but it's made of concrete. It's unbreakable, like concrete? Whatever. Now that's out of the way. Let's talk about the image that goes with SCP 173, much like the rest of SCP 173, the image at the core of the article, which despite not showing up in the archive was actually present in the original post, was not original content. The picture was taken by Kaisuke Yamamoto as part of an art exhibit from a Japanese artist called Izumi Kato. The sculpture in the image is called Untitled 2004. Izumi Kato actually labels a lot of his works untitled in the year, so if you go searching on the internet you'll find a lot of other sculptures that look somewhat familiar to this one. Now normally I'd be showing images of the works and works I'm talking about, and by the way since this is an educational video informing you about the article it's actually pretty much explicitly fair use, but Kato requested specifically that no images be displayed for commercial purposes, and this is a commercial YouTube video, so you know I'm going to respect those wishes. Though this ties in strongly to a serious issue with the image and something that we should probably talk about so you fully understand what's going on. See, for the longest time on the wiki, blatant theft of images was sort of largely ignored. In fact, there's still plenty of stolen images up on the site right now that no one is either found or complained about, but not this one. See, SCP-173 is just too popular, and given that popularity on the internet, the artist was eventually aware of the images used on the SCP wiki. But this story almost immediately takes a turn here. See, we're going to go into a different topic for just a second. In 2014, a live action film was planned called Containment Breach Run. This film was to be based around the SCP property, and was inspired and influenced by the game SCP Containment Breach, which if you've played or even seen gameplay of, you know, includes heavy use of SCP-173, and a teaser trailer for this film was shot. It contained recreations of the likeness of 173, because that was the inspiration for it. Up to this point, the SCP wiki had tried for a very, very long time to get in contact with Izumi Kato, and it failed every time. They had, however, an inkling that the usage of a stolen image in other media was likely to turn out poorly for literally everyone, so the administration contacted the person behind the trailer, a fella called Gage Allen, under the username Lotems, and let him know it would probably be an issue. Now this led to some back and forth between Allen and the administration until Allen proved that he had actually gotten direct permission from Izumi Kato to use the likeness in his film. Administration was actually incredulous to this fact, and they actually thought that this guy was faking. Because, I mean, how is it possible that someone else, after all this time, had managed on the first try to get in contact with Kato when they'd persistently tried for years and failed, but dude had proof. Sadly, the original images and the proof that they were weren't quotes, they were screenshots, and those screenshots are no longer available. I can't walk you through the correspondence itself, but what I can show you is the message the SCP wiki staff got from Izumi Kato once Lotems connected them with each other. Now to be fair, this is someone whose first language is probably not English, so it's probably not going to read perfectly, but I'm not going to change anything. I read your email. First of all, I wanted you to contact me, the artist, to confirm my decision on the use of image untitled 2004 as SCP 173 before you and member of SCP Foundation use it. I will reluctantly permit the secondary use of the image of untitled 2004 as SCP 173 unless SCP Foundation use it for commercial reasons, because there is a situation that many people have recognized SCP 173. But I have a certain concept and making purpose about this sculpture. I made a drawing of untitled 2004 before I created the sculpture. Of course, the concept of SCP 173 which SCP Foundation set is significantly different from the concept of untitled 2004. Accordingly, I want the SCP Foundation to add a note of caution. SCP 173 is a secondary use of the image of untitled 2004 which was created by Izumi Kato. The concept of SCP 173 does not have any relationship with the artist's original concept of untitled 2004. I won't complain about you and SCP Foundation using my sculpture's image unless it is used for commercial purposes. However, I plan to take legal measures to a demand an injunction if somebody uses this image for commercial purposes. I hope that you and SCP Foundation will please kindly heed my feelings about untitled 2004 and SCP 173. Best Izumi Kato That is the main reason why there is a huge warning label beneath the SCP 173 article on the main side. That's also why SCP 173 putting much will never be in a commercial product unless someone can get Kato to okay it. Well, sort of. What it really does mean is that a lot of newer game developers who are working on games that are going to be commercial and want to include SCP 173 have started looking into new looks for SCP 173. Things that are related to the original but not exact replications. Ultimately so they can use what is arguably the most iconic SCP in their commercial works. There are numerous redesigns in the works for several different games, though don't hold your breath for it to change on the wiki. They have permission, even though it's conditional and someone would really need to upset the apple cart for them to switch it out for an image that isn't stolen. Anyway, that's a brief history of SCP 173, so how much of that did you already know? And how much more do you know now? Let me know in the comments down below. And finally, I want to give a huge thanks to Dr. Spice who recently upped their pledge from $1 to $10. Welcome to the upper tiers of pledgers. 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