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The Oatmeal vs Funnyjunk (Lawsuit)


Guest Rob

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Note: Many websites I have provided links for contain profanity.

 

Some time last year, The Oatmeal, a fairly known webcomic artist, posted this in his blog regarding his comics being stolen by funnyjunk.com. This started a bit of an internet war between the fanbases of both websites (more info here), but it quickly subsided. At the beginning of June, Funnyjunk announced that they were suing The Oatmeal for slandering their website, demanding $20,000 in damages. He responded in a bit of an unusual way (see previous link for reply), and then countered their lawsuit with a charity campaign, hoping to raise $20,000, which would then be donated to two separate charities. Within 64 minutes the $20,000 was raised, and 8 days later, nearly $200,000 has been raised for charity. Outraged at The Oatmeal's response, Charles Carreon (Funnyjunk's lawyer) has filed additional lawsuits, against the two charities, Indiegogo (the website that The Oatmeal is hosting his fundraiser on) and The Oatmeal himself.

 

What are your thoughts on this? Personally I think that, although The Oatmeal probably could have seen this coming, suing the charities and Indiegogo is a bit far, and probably won't end well for Carreon.

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I hope funnyjunk gets destroyed. They are just a half step up from 9gag in unfunniness and content stealing.

 

I would say it's a little bit hypocritical of sites like Reddit to get so angered by funnyjunk users posting content from other sites though, seeing as that's what they wanted to protect by stopping SOPA.

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While the guy from theoatmeal probably isn't exactly acting wisely, the lawsuit against him is ridiculous. Yeah, copyright claims are hard to defend over the internet, but being sued basically for being outraged about your comics being stolen....

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Been all over Reddit for the last week, pretty funny.

 

It started as the lawyer of a relatively large website trying to bully The Oatmeal into giving in and paying the money to avoid dealing with the legal hassle... but since Funnyjunk is the only site who is actually doing anything illegal (hosting comics without permission), the lawsuit was pretty much bound to fail.

And now, he's got himself into a mess where he has hundreds of thousands of random people on the internet who are sending him hatemail and donating to The Oatmeal to spite him. His case has no legs to stand on (all statements made by The Oatmeal were true), and Funnyjunk is still hosting half of their content without permission.

 

His solution? Sue the American Cancer Society! A high profile charity with a history of winning large scale legal battles.

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Hilarity ensued.

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Down with cancerous bears!

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I'm starting to think that this is why the internet can't have nice things.

Icwutudidther

 

Anyways, isn't funnyjunk like, almost at the bottom when it comes to stealing and misusing content that was once original? (9gag being rock bottom, unless you speak spanish, then nothing gets as bad as cuantocabron).

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I think Oatmeal is right in all senses. I'm actually only mad at funnyjunk because the fanbase blew up on Oatmeal so much. I'm actually down for that site [i don't like the site, but I like the idea of it]. While yes it steals and profits off of other people's work, they should have the right to give a cease and desist as Oatmeal did and have it taken down. But a site of collective funny material deserves to remain on the internet, so long as it's properly moderated. Which funnyjunk currently obviously isn't.

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I'm surprised that nobody has pointed out to the fact that included in the lawsuit is Does. Which basically means that there are other, unnamed, defendants in the case. God knows who or what is also being sued, especially since Carreon is basically the new Jack Thompson.

 

I would say it's a little bit hypocritical of sites like Reddit to get so angered by funnyjunk users posting content from other sites though, seeing as that's what they wanted to protect by stopping SOPA.

 

While I'm not going to delve into SOPA, as that is one big vault of worms, Reddit users don't have a problem with content being re-hosted, as many users will re-host images to imgur especially since it often prevents the Slashdot effect, but for the most part people will post the original source. This allows for people to view the original image and generate revenue for the creators, which many prefer to do, while saving the site from being overloaded by the masses. What they do have is a problem with is content being re-hosted without a link back to the original creator. In this case, Inman.

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I'm starting to think that this is why the internet can't have nice things.

 

You said it well. :thumbup:

 

Funnyjunk really shouldn't have blown up at Oatmeal because the latter had a good point that the other site was displaying content that wasn't their's. The fact they took it further levels when they could have complied with Oatmeal's request and calmly remove the requested material isn't exactly helping their case either. At least it is providing anyone who chooses to simply observe some amusement.

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Suing two major charities that are more or less universally loved?

 

Funnyjunk's lawyers obviously don't understand how "bad publicity" works.

Not to mention that these charities have the money to get very very good lawyers and possibly destroy Funnyjunk legally if they get pissed enough.

 

...This is going to be really enjoyable to watch.

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Funnyjunk's lawyers obviously don't understand how "bad publicity" works.

Not to mention that these charities have the money to get very very good lawyers and possibly destroy Funnyjunk legally if they get pissed enough.

 

It's just 1 lawyer doing this, and the defence is being represented pro bono, which means that the lawyer is voluntarily working for free, or at a very reduced rate. In this case I believe it's for free though. Either way, Carreon is going to be destroyed in this case. The defence barely has to work to build a case at this point, since the internet is practically doing it for them already.

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This is both one of the funniest things I've ever heard, and the most egregious example of how truly far out of whack our litigious society has become.

 

I can't wait to see how this unfolds next. So much more entertaining than reading about drunken starlets crashing their cars or which quasi-famous dilettante they're shacking up with.

 

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