FunnyJunk Sues the Oatmeal Over TM and "Incitement To Cyber-Vandalism" 390
eldavojohn writes "You may recall from last week the news item concerning FunnyJunk's extortion ... er ... threat of defamation lawsuit against The Oatmeal highlighting a fairly pervasive problem of rehosting content — in this case web comics. Instead of expediting a payment of $20,000 to FunnyJunk, Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal decided to crowd source the money (with 8 days left he has only garnered 900% of his goal) and donate it to charity after sending a picture of it to FunnyJunk. Charles Carreon (the man who has FunnyJunk) has made statements of Inman saying '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.' In an interview Carreon says 'So someone takes one of my letters and takes it apart. That doesn't mean you can just declare netwar, that doesn't mean you can encourage people to hack my website, to brute force my WordPress installation so I have to change my password. You can't encourage people to violate my trademark and violate my twitter name and associate me with incompetence with stupidity, and douchebaggery. And if that's where the world is going I will fight with every ounce of force in this 5'11 180 pound frame against it. I've got the energy, and I've got the time.' Well it appears that Carreon has filed suit over these matters alleging 'trademark infringement and incitement to cyber-vandalism.' Speaking of douchebaggery, Charles Carreon curiously fails to mention that he first incited all of his users to harass The Oatmeal anyway they can which they dutifully did. One last juicy detail is that Carreon is also suing the National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society to which Inman's crowd sourced money is going. Luckily, Inman's lawyer appears to be fully competent and able to address Carreon's complaints."
Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
"Carreon is also suing the National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society"
That can't be good for business
"Charles Carreon (the man who has FunnyJunk)" (Score:5, Funny)
I see what you did there! Nice.
captcha: excites. Lol.
Associations (Score:5, Funny)
No, only you can do that. ;)
Welcome to the internet (Score:4, Funny)
Where everything always turns into a complete shitstorm.
fun place.
I need to patent... (Score:5, Funny)
I need to file a patent on frivolous lawsuits. I know exactly how I'd word the letter announcing my intent to protect my IP.
"Yo dawg, I heard you like to sue, so I'm suing you for suing, so you can go to court for going to court..."
Re:Suing the ACS, really? (Score:5, Funny)
So you're saying Funky Junk is worse than cancer?
Re:Suing the ACS, really? (Score:5, Funny)
In other news, cancer has decided that the enemy of its enemy is its friend and has thus teamed up with FunnyJunk. The resulting entity has not yet been named, but FunCancer is currently favored.
Re:Obligatory (Score:4, Funny)
He's a run of the mill moron that have an overinflated ego and sense of competence. The Dunning-Kruger effect in play more or less.
I was thinking more along the lines of the Peter Principle.
(Get it? Peter, FunkyJunk? Oh, never mind...)
Yeah, He's Also the Lawyer for FunnyJunk (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Welcome to the internet (Score:5, Funny)
Someone should let Zuckerberg know that it isnt worth it. Im sure he will find that fascinating.
Re:Suing the ACS, really? (Score:5, Funny)
Cancerjunk was rejected on the grounds that they might face trademark conflicts from Lance Armstrong.
Too Soon?
Who did what to whom? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Welcome to the internet (Score:2, Funny)
Stuff like this is actually the reason why I don't run any large public sites. The legality of it all is just crazy and policing the world at large to prevent them from posting illegal material or causing other issues is an impossible task. All this for very little payoff and high risk. It's just not worth it.
Yeah. That and lack of any good ideas.
Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
yeah, if it was something like 12 feet and 500 pounds.. now that would be impressive.
Tomorrow's news (Score:5, Funny)
You may recall from last week the news item concerning FunnyJunk's extortion ...
Charles Carreon has filed suit in California court against Slashdot, alleging that an article appearing on the site defamed him by characterizing his lawsuit agains The Oatmeal as "extortion."
When reached for comment, Carreon stated, "They like to hide behind this claim that their content is all user-generated, but that certainly doesn't obviate their responsibility to... oh, fuck."
Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Unless such a human were made of delicious lemon meringue! There, I've run rings around you logically. And now the penguin on top of your television set will explode.
You have to admit this post makes at least as much a sense as Funnyjunk's lawyer's claims.
Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
No, but it's GREAT for taking a substantial lead in this year's "Jack Thompson's Legal Career" Memorial Award for Bad Legal Interaction with an Website, Online Forum, or Service Provider.
Re:Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I think a countersuit is definitely in order (Score:2, Funny)
5'11 180 pound frame
Pfft. Is that supposed to be impressive? My wife is 5'4 and 200 lbs!
Note: She was 120lbs when I met her though.
PS: i'm depressed.