BearLove Good. Cancer Bad.

[Alareth]

Last year, the artist of The Oatmeal took issue with his work being uploaded to the website funnyjunk.com without attribution. He wrote a blog post about it, then for the most part just let it go.

Now, a year later, he has received a letter from a lawyer representing funnyjunk.com claiming defamation and demanding $20,000 or they would file a lawsuit.

Inman has responded with another blog post detailing the incident and his plan to have a fundraiser to get the twenty grand, then mail funnyjunk a picture of himself with the money before giving it all to charity.

He raised the money within 64 minutes. As of the writing of this post, the total is at $144,000. In an interview with MSNBC, funnyjunk's lawyer stated that he has contacted indiegogo.com and requested the fundraiser be shut down as he believes it to be a violation of the sites terms of service.

Further reading:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...s-the-oatmeal/
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...-the-internet/

[tyr_13]

Troll lawyer is trolling.

[Cuddles]

Originally Posted by Alareth

http://digitallife.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/12/12187665-cartoonist-turns-lawsuit-threat-into-100k-charity-fundraiser

Quote:

"I really did not expect that he would marshal an army of people who would besiege my website and send me a string of obscene emails," he says.

"I'm completely unfamiliar really with this style of responding to a legal threat — I've never really seen it before," Carreon explains. "I don't like seeing anyone referring to my mother as a sexual deviant," he added, referencing the drawing Inman posted.

Given that the owner of FunnyJunk explicitly told every single one of its members to do exactly this when the issue first came up a year ago, pretending that this is something they haven't seen before takes some pretty serious balls. As does trying to sue someone when you're the one profiting from stealing their work.

[Alareth]

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition Internet!

[Moss]

<trollhat> I wonder if he could sue them for defamation because they put his stuff up on a website that calls itself funny JUNK. </trollhat>

[Alareth]

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...ndraiser.shtml

[Alareth]

the man behind this article is a consummate wordsmith http://www.popehat.com/2012/06/12/he...h-the-oatmeal/

[kookbreaker]

Did the lesson of Cook's Source go completely past this person? Ocean Marketing? Does he have no idea how the internet can pound you into dust?

[Alareth]

In a classic example of the Streisand Effect, the lawyer appears to be doubling down.

http://www.popehat.com/2012/06/15/th...-the-internet/

[Alareth]

Well, Carreon has filed suit. And it's a doozy.

He is not only suing The Oatmeal, he's suing Indiegogo AND THE CHARITIES THE MONEY HAS BEEN PLEDGED TO GO TO.

Quote:

According to the summary provided by CNS, and again I stress I haven't seen the actual complaint yet, Carreon has sued for "trademark infringement and incitement to cyber-vandalism," and he has not only sued Inman but also the website through which he has been raising money for charity (IndieGogo.com) and the charities to which Inman has pledged the money. Yes, he is apparently also suing the National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society. The summary says Inman's request for donations "purports to raise money" for these organizations, "but was really designed to revile plaintiff and his client, FunnyJunk.com .…" (As you can divine from that, Carreon is representing himself here.) Looking forward to seeing the complaint for many reasons, but especially to find out how the charities are supposedly to blame for any of this.

http://www.loweringthebar.net/2012/0...e-oatmeal.html
http://www.popehat.com/2012/06/17/th...ues-everybody/

[ponderingturtle]

keep digging you crazy star!

[Lamuella]

that's amazing. I hope next he goes on to sue the concept of money.

[Dancing David]

Lawyer makes money suing, fourteen year old pretends to be lawyer

[Wowbagger]

If it was Oatmeal's intention to egg his opponent on, so he would be more inclined to react in stupid ways.... it seems to have worked.

If that wasn't the intention, Oatmeal may have simply overestimated the intelligence of his opponent.


Either way, the best thing FunnyJunk and its lawyer can do, would be to.... Stop. Doing. Stupid. Things. Cool down, think rationally for a moment or two, before taking your next action.

[Alareth]

Here is the full pdf of the actual filing

http://kevinunderhill.typepad.com/Do...n_redacted.pdf

[ehcks]

Originally Posted by Wowbagger

If it was Oatmeal's intention to egg his opponent on, so he would be more inclined to react in stupid ways.... it seems to have worked.

If that wasn't the intention, Oatmeal may have simply overestimated the intelligence of his opponent.


Either way, the best thing FunnyJunk and its lawyer can do, would be to.... Stop. Doing. Stupid. Things. Cool down, think rationally for a moment or two, before taking your next action.

Never underestimate human stupidity.

[IMST]

I've loved The Oatmeal for some time and the thing that infuriates me here, in addition to the obvious, is that it seems to have significantly reduced the site's output since this seems to be taking up a significant portion of Matt's time.

[Alareth]

Charles Carreon answers some questions: http://www.ramblingbeachcat.com/2012...beach-cat.html

Also, he donated to the fundraiser specifically so that he could claim standing to sue: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...ls-fundraiser/

[Lamuella]

if ever there were a case for the reply given in Arkell v Pressdram...

[Ladewig]

Originally Posted by Wowbagger

If it was Oatmeal's intention to egg his opponent on, so he would be more inclined to react in stupid ways.... it seems to have worked.

If that wasn't the intention, Oatmeal may have simply overestimated the intelligence of his opponent.


Either way, the best thing FunnyJunk and its lawyer can do, would be to.... Stop. Doing. Stupid. Things. Cool down, think rationally for a moment or two, before taking your next action.

Yesterday I heard a vintage radio program in which one character tells another "think carefully about what decision you are about to make in the next two minutes. It is very possible that you will spend the rest of your life trying to recapture those two minutes - you will not succeed in that endeavor."

[Alareth]

I've finished reading the full filing and see that he has requested a jury trial for all this.

[IMST]

A response to the lawsuit being filed is up on The Oatmeal: http://theoatmeal.com/blog/carreon
A couple highlights"

Originally Posted by The Oatmeal

So when did this transform from Oatmeal VS FunnyJunk to Carreon VS the internet? I'm going to take a wild shot in the dark here and guess that it's when you announced to a journalist at MSNBC that you were trying to shut down a charity fundraiser which would benefit cancer victims and endangered wildlife.

Originally Posted by The Oatmeal

Write an apology to whomever you feel is appropriate, or just don't write anything ever again.

Maybe start your own charity fundraiser as way of apology. I'd donate.

Hugs and sexy bear kisses,

-The Oatmeal

[IMST]

Something I've learned from reading articles on this is that Matthew Inman is a seriously good looking guy and I'd like to extend a formal invitation on behalf of Teh International Gay Conspiracy to join the team, if he has not already.

[Ladewig]

I don't know if my question is about legal matters or human nature, but I'll ask it anyway.

How does one arrive at the point where one says to oneself, things will turn out well for me if I sue someone who has several competent lawyers available to work pro bono and sue the American Cancer Society as well?

The ACS is almost a billion dollar organization and must have a team of lawyers who would love to take such an absurdly easy case. No one being targeted in this suit is going to say, "I'll settle out of court to avoid legal costs and embarrassing publicity." Does this guy think he can tap dance in front of a jury fast enough to win the case?

The suit's defendants constantly refer to the Streisand Effect (which has its own webpage (which is kind of meta)).

Is this guy's perspective so distorted that he thinks additional publicity will do something other than hurt him?

[nathan]

Originally Posted by Alareth

Also, he donated to the fundraiser specifically so that he could claim standing to sue:

yeah, I read the complaint and made that deduction.

Originally Posted by Alareth

I've finished reading the full filing and see that he has requested a jury trial for all this.

I don't see how it can fly in front of a jury:

<lawyer>Why did you donate to operation bearlove?
<carreon>I wanted to contribute to the wildlife fund and the cancer fund.
<lawyer>Why didn't you just contribute directly to those charities then? The whole point of operation bearlove is to ridicule Funny Junk and their lawyer. Which happens to be you.
<carreon>I was concerned that operation bearlove was operating outside of the statutes.
<lawyer>So why didn't you just inform Matt of this?
<carreon>I feared he wouldn't listen to me unless I sued him.
<lawyer>So you intentionally donated to a cause whose goal is to ridicule you, so you could sue Matt?
<carreon>Yes

*jury*: <takei voice>Oh my</takei>

[nathan]

Originally Posted by Ladewig

Is this guy's perspective so distorted that he thinks additional publicity will do something other than hurt him?

Well one thing's for sure. He's not the hot shot internet lawyer he claims to be. I found it from LTB, now I know that theoatmeal is funny, popehat has a good commentry and Carreon is a douchebag.

[Alareth]

Carreon has announced plans to subpoena Twitter and Ars Technica to gan user information in an attempt the track down the person behind the fake Twitter account

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...a-ars-twitter/

[Ladewig]

Originally Posted by nathan

*jury*: <takei voice>Oh my</takei>

Words cannot describe how much I want to be on a jury that speaks in a George Takei voice.

[Alareth]

The EFF has stepped into the fray to represent Inman

https://www.eff.org/press/releases/e...eting-critical

[nathan]

Originally Posted by Alareth

The EFF has stepped into the fray to represent Inman

https://www.eff.org/press/releases/e...eting-critical

you missed the funniest part:

Originally Posted by EFF

Inman crafted a unique response, ...

[Orphia Nay]

I hope this is affecting funnyjunk's total views. I'm on my iPad now or I'd go to Alexa to grab a screenshot.

[Aepervius]

Originally Posted by Orphia Nay

I hope this is affecting funnyjunk's total views. I'm on my iPad now or I'd go to Alexa to grab a screenshot.

It made an incredible spike of about 4 times the traffic it usually receive.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/funnyjunk.com#

But immediately went down so far as I can see back to normal or nearly normal level

Quote:

Estimated percentage of global internet users who visit funnyjunk.com:
Reach % Change
Yesterday 0.035% -26% Change in Reach % over the trailing 1 day period
7 day 0.0374% -28% Change in Reach % over the trailing 7 day period
1 month 0.0366% +23% Change in Reach % over the trailing 1 month period
3 month 0.0328% +11% Change in Reach % over the trailing 3 month period

[Orphia Nay]

Thanks again, Aepervius. Rats.

[Dave Rogers]

Jesus Christ, Fenton. I just looked up recent developments, and according to Ars Technica, Carreon is now sueing the California State Attorney. No idea why, the article doesn't say. Can anybody look up the latest filing?

Dave

[nathan]

Originally Posted by Dave Rogers

Jesus Christ, Fenton. I just looked up recent developments, and according to Ars Technica, Carreon is now sueing the California State Attorney. No idea why, the article doesn't say. Can anybody look up the latest filing?

Dave

That's not my understanding. From LTB (http://www.loweringthebar.net/2012/0...still-odd.html) I understand he's trying to join the AG because only the AG has standing to enforce the fake charity collector law he's trying to invoke. Or something. I.e. he's not suing the AG, but trying to get the AG to prosecute Matt Inman. Or something.

[Dave Rogers]

Originally Posted by nathan

That's not my understanding. From LTB (http://www.loweringthebar.net/2012/0...still-odd.html) I understand he's trying to join the AG because only the AG has standing to enforce the fake charity collector law he's trying to invoke. Or something. I.e. he's not suing the AG, but trying to get the AG to prosecute Matt Inman. Or something.

I see. I think. Well, I'd be embarrassed at the mistake, but at the moment I think not being able to fathom Carreon's actions or motives should be more a source of pride.

I presume this is a purely unilateral move on Carreon's part, and that the AG may or may not choose to become involved in the suit - is that right?

Dave

[Spindrift]

After this case maybe he can represent George Simpson.

[Aepervius]

Originally Posted by Spindrift

After this case maybe he can represent George Simpson.

Now that's a corny idea.

[nathan]

Originally Posted by Dave Rogers

I presume this is a purely unilateral move on Carreon's part, and that the AG may or may not choose to become involved in the suit - is that right

That is my understanding from LTB. I'm sure the AG is pleased as punch to be named.