The Oatmeals Matthew Inman has posted, as promised, the images of the amount of cash raised by supporters and fans of his work across the web after FunkyJunk filed a federal lawsuit against him. That was a pretty big mistake.
Brief backstory:
Last year Matthew posted an article regarding the blatant mass copying of most of his site by FunkyJunk who uploaded on-masse images from The Oatmeal without giving any credit to the artist or back links. Basically, they pretty much stole most of the work on his site. Here is how FunkyJunk basically operate:
- Gather funny pictures from around the internet
- Host them on FunnyJunk.com
- Slather them in advertising
- If someone claims copyright infringement, throw your hands up in the air and exclaim “It was our users who uploaded your photos! We had nothing to do with it! We’re innocent!”
- Cash six figure advertising checks from other artist’s stolen material
Then on June 2nd this year, Matthew received a letter from FunkJunk’s attorney Charles Carreon (Full letter)claiming that the article he wrote last year was a willful and false accusation of copyright infringement as well as writing false statements in how FunkyJunk conduct business. Carreon then unbelievably went on to demand that:
- Remove all mention of FunnyJunk and FunkyJunk.com from TheOatmeal.com from your website and any other website over which you have control
- Deliver to me a check in the amount of $20,000 payable to the order of FunkyJunk LLC
Matthew’s response to Charles Carreon was priceless to say the least.
“I’ve got a better idea, I’m going to try and raise $20,000 in donations. I’m going to take a photo of the raised money. I’m going to mail you that photo, along with this drawing of your mom seducing a Kodiak bear. I’m going to take the money and donate one half to the National Wildlife Federation and the other half to the American Cancer Society.”
The subsequent charity fundraiser named Operation: BearLove Good. Cancer Bad. went viral as angry fans of The Oatmeal spread word of the crazy demands of FunkyJunk and Charles Carreon via Social Networks and trended worldwide. The initial $20,000 dollars that Matthew wanted to raise was reached in 64 minutes. It then continued to grow to a total of $211,223.04 which was, as promised divided and given to the two charities, The National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society.
Raised the $20,000 in 64 minutes. THANK YOU EVERYONE!is.gd/DgKP13
— Matthew Inman (@Oatmeal) June 11, 2012
Charles Carreon in just one of many dumb moves to incense people, then proceeded to try and sue not only Matthew Inman, but also the two charities National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society.
I think that Matthews reply to this latest bit of douchebaggery was very well put:
Your lawsuit is meritless and it’ll probably just get dismissed, but I’m guessing you’re just going to keep trying until you find an angle that sticks with a judge. My advice: take a few weeks off, stop saying crazy shit to journalists, and come back when you’ve calmed down. 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
So, now that you have a brief understanding of the back story, here are the images that Matthew promised.
Awesome is a word too often used at times, but rarely deserved. The way Matthew dealt with the litigious troll (my words) that is Carreon was indeed ‘Awesome’.
All images via The Oatmeal and Google+
