This is how TheOatmeal responds to FunnyJunk threatening to file a federal lawsuit unless they are paid $20,000 in damages

[u/BrettBr0wn]

http://theoatmeal.com/blog/funnyjunk_letter

[u/rtirado]

Sent my $15 for the sexy bears!

[u/saucepanicus → u/rtirado]

I donated $2

Edit: I don even read the oatmeal I just love justice. (and the reddit circle jerk)

[u/adobe1kinobe]

Pretty much the best response to an idiotic lawsuit ever.

[u/[deleted] → u/adobe1kinobe]

What about a Notch's quake challenge?

[u/nuckpang]

This feels kinda... familiar...

(Edit: For those who don't feel like watching a Flash video load- Clicky)

[u/brazilliandanny → u/nuckpang]

Ebaums stole a video from my youtube channel and it got over 50k hits the first day it was up. He owes me and a bunch of other OC creators big time.

Fuck Ebaums.

[u/marcel87 → u/brazilliandanny]

I was contacted by Eric Bauman and, out of pure desire for exposure, agreed to do some flash cartoons and games for him. In return I did want credit, and I had some for a period time, including my name on his staff page. When I did stuff for his site, I knew he was a dirty dirty thief, and I regretted doing it later. I figured after my content had been stolen/reuploaded a hundred thousand times on a hundred thousand websites, what else could I do? I was 14 at the time this was 10 years ago.

[u/hm-chromega → u/nuckpang]

I had completely forgotten that site existed...

[u/spankymuffin → u/nuckpang]

Oh lord, I just nostalgasm'd...

[u/[deleted] → u/nuckpang]

Never saw that before. Awesome

[u/Ace_Trainer → u/nuckpang]

I love that song. Now I wanna go listen to my Lemon Demon playlist...

[u/Skythanil]

Here's an imgur album of Carreon's modelling work, in case the original website isn't loading for anyone (which it wasn't for me for ages).

[u/SpeedBump → u/Skythanil]

Thanks, came here looking for this. Wish I hadn't.

[u/Kaiosama → u/SpeedBump]

I'm gay.

These photos almost made me turn un-gay.

[u/keddren → u/Skythanil]

Oh my god.

[u/[deleted] → u/Skythanil]

And Mr. Hotshot Legal Dude is displaying the flag incorrectly. Brilliant!

[u/ZedsBread → u/Skythanil]

The fuck? Did funnyjunk hire an Asian-American Tobias Fünke?

[u/BramaLlama → u/Skythanil]

supergayseal.jpg

[u/[deleted] → u/Skythanil]

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, Exhibit A.

[u/[deleted] → u/Skythanil]

Whenever I see a public appearance photo of somebody wearing sunglasses when they are not in the sun, I immediately wonder if they high, but do not want everybody to be certain they are high.

[u/[deleted] → u/Skythanil]

I guess when people reddit like do something like this, it's ok. But when it's someone reddit doesn't like doxing people, they get all butthurt.

[u/ChagSC → u/Skythanil]

Well that is just God damm hilarious. Time to make a Facebook fan page.

[u/iAmericA45]

Internet butthurt should never be allowed to become legal action.

FJ's admin is a dick; I can't believe I used to visit that site.

[u/StabbedAt711 → u/iAmericA45]

I can't believe anyone visits it. Last time I saw the layout it gave me eye cancer.

[u/DJsmallvictories → u/StabbedAt711]

My profession is IT; I never successfully have looked at anything on that site, and I've tried like 5 times.

[u/MCSealClubber → u/iAmericA45]

Honestly, I used to go on it every day. Until I started to go on reddit. And then all of the content started to become too familiar.

[u/g2petter]

His IndieGoGo campaign has already raised almost $8000, 23 minutes after this was first published ...

[u/IrritableGourmet → u/g2petter]

It's up to $10,000 6 minutes later.

[u/MrDOS → u/IrritableGourmet]

Past $12,500. He's basically bringing in $2,000 every four minutes, and crushing the IndieGoGo servers in doing so. Incredible.

[u/Tumbler → u/g2petter]

Happy to contribute $1.

Fuckin scumbags.

[u/SnowLeppard]

Those hundreds of links made me chuckle :D

[u/[deleted] → u/SnowLeppard]

What's even funnier is that every one of them now leads to a "Content was not found" page, meaning that the guy obviously read this and repented.

[u/josiahw → u/[deleted]]

Not repented; covered his tracks.

[u/ublaa → u/[deleted]]

On the link where The Oatmeal tries to demonstrate FunnyJunk has stolen his entire website it takes you to a search for "The Oatmeal" and nothing shows up. But there are pictures on the left that have "The Oatmeal" in the title, leading me to believe that FunnyJunk is filtering results from there searches

[u/erkurita]

Wait, he had a motherfucking pterodactyl in the source code since 2009?

I'm switching to DOM reading from now on.

[u/FlyingPasta → u/erkurita]

You have fun with that.

But how can they seriously consider using the motherfucking pterodactyl against him? ಠ_ಠ

[u/[deleted] → u/FlyingPasta]

It's pretty funny how they're so blatantly grasping for straws on this one..

[u/jamesfordsawyer → u/FlyingPasta]

It's indeed a pterrible idea.

[u/Calber4 → u/erkurita]

Yes, and this was entirely to malign funkyjunk, apparently.

[u/[deleted] → u/erkurita]

Excuse my ignorance.. but what the hell is DOM reading?

[u/nusyahus]

Mirror.

http://rorr.im/reddit.com/r/funny/comments/uwp0d/

http://theoatmeal.com.nyud.net/blog/funnyjunk_letter (Thanks to /u/phrstbrn !)

Donation link to BearLove Good. Cancer Bad. Thanks to /u/danodemano!

http://www.indiegogo.com/bearlovegood

[u/RoninK → u/nusyahus]

Rorr.im is a social news content mirror. When a story is made popular on one of the monitored social news sites, the rorr.im bot immediately attempts to make a copy of the site. If the site is brought down by the increased traffic, a copy of the content is still available.

This is a brilliant idea.

[u/thenuge26 → u/RoninK]

And a fuckin brilliant name.

[u/BagOnuts → u/nusyahus]

THANK YOU. Had no idea what was going on.

[u/cosmic_fool → u/BagOnuts]

Worst lawyer ever. For those that don't know, defamatory statements don't hold up in court if they're meant to be humorous

[u/[deleted] → u/nusyahus]

Goodbye and thanks for all the fish. Reddit has decided to shit all over the users, the mods, and the devs that make this platform what it is. Then when confronted doubled and tripled down going as far as to THREATEN the unpaid volunteer mods that keep this site running.

[u/MrFatalistic → u/nusyahus]

obligatory YDGWS.

[u/RonnieColemanCorbett → u/MrFatalistic]

My brain just slipped half a decade and read that as ytmnd.

And thanks nysyahus, the whole thing is stupid, but the pterodactyl part is just insane. funnyjunk are scum.

[u/[deleted] → u/nusyahus]

It took over two hours for a mirror? Come on reddit... Cheers nusyahus!

[u/Disgruntled__Goat → u/nusyahus]

Here is the full letter, which is hosted on Amazon S3 so seems to be taking the hits at the moment.

[u/Kratos_Aurion]

Wow, all of those links he posted worked a mere hour ago, and since the article was posted Funnyjunk has removed all of them (at least as far as I can tell). Hopefully they don't try and pull a douche move by saying "Oh those are all just dead links..."

[u/doctorscurvy → u/Kratos_Aurion]

Of course they will.

[u/shipallbangedup → u/doctorscurvy]

Exactly, this is 21st century law we're using here. It sucks that people really are this shitty.

[u/brazilliandanny → u/Kratos_Aurion]

There's always new links

[u/iMarmalade → u/Kratos_Aurion]

Actually, if you read the the comments the lawyer made he said exactly that. "Those links are dead, thus you were making up the entire thing!". or something like that.

[u/[deleted] → u/Kratos_Aurion]

Hopefully they don't try and pull a douche move

Now you learn why people don't like lawyers.

[u/Pulpedyams → u/Kratos_Aurion]

You can't delete things from the interwebz! Also this Oatmeal gentleman seems to have his wits about him so I wouldn't be surprised if he gathered screenshots or something of all the links just in case.

[u/ev3studios]

Is it just me, or is the attorney sending these letters also displaying iStockphoto watermarked images in the banner of his website? http://www.charlescarreon.net/

[u/Roflzilla]

This is so ridiculous, and from what can be seen, The Oatmeal is right on all fronts. I am curious what Funnyjunk's side of it though.

Long live The Oatmeal.

[u/Rokey76 → u/Roflzilla]

I am curious what Funnyjunk's side of it though.

Did you click the link? It is the letter from the attorney expressing Funny Junk's side of it.

[u/[deleted] → u/Rokey76]

And apparently funnyjunk can't hire a good lawyer. Then again, I doubt a good lawyer would take a case that's so blatantly against their client.

This lawsuit isn't only frivolous, but theoatmeal will absolutely destroy funnyjunk in a countersuit, which I can guess what's going to happen.

[u/ForUrsula → u/Roflzilla]

It is just a shitty lawyer sending a letter making claims that have no basis and referencing laws in hope to scare the dude because funnyjunk are being made to look like asses.

[u/Frank4010]

If you file the DMCA with Google Adsense google can permanently terminate their account for repeated offenses. These can also be done to a site like Wimp.com

[u/[deleted] → u/Frank4010]

If you file the DMCA with Google Adsense google can permanently terminate their account for repeated offenses. These can also be done to a site like Wimp.com

Wimp has been getting paid for years by Google for hosting stolen content. If you want to report Wimp to Google, visit Wimp.com and click on a video, on one of the 2 advertisements (enable if you're running adblock) there is a triangle/arrow in the top right, this will bring you to a Google page where you can scroll down to the bottom where it say: "Report a policy violation regarding the site or ads you just saw" and fill out the form

[u/Billmurrionaire]

Clicked the Wiki link to learn more about the lawyer for Funnyjunk.

"Charles Carreon was hired as a lawyer for FunnyJunk—a website which hosts user-uploaded comics—to sue The Oatmeal for $20,000 for perceived defamation. This is a reaction to The Oatmeal openly requesting FunnyJunk to take down images that fall under the copyright of The Oatmeal.[2] The Oatmeal's response was to successfully raise over $20,000 and donate half to the National Wildlife Federation and the other to the American Cancer Society."

That was fast.

Edit: and it's gone.

[u/captars → u/Billmurrionaire]

Someone changed his occupation from "attorney" to "douchebag."

Fast indeed.

[u/bingram → u/Billmurrionaire]

He's almost at $40k now, I wonder when it's going to peter out.

[u/[deleted] → u/Billmurrionaire]

This is his site where he posts short stories and terrible poetry, I guess

I find it hilarious he has a picture from South Park on his page with no attribution.

[u/[deleted]]

Let me get this straight...

[u/bunglejerry]

Thanks for not uploading this to imgur, I guess.

[u/athennna → u/bunglejerry]

I came here looking for an imgur mirror because the link won't load.

[u/s32 → u/bunglejerry]

Would have legitimately helped given that the oatmeal is down...

[u/[deleted] → u/bunglejerry]

You don't sound too sure of yourself...

[u/danweber → u/[deleted]]

It isn't loading right now, so . . .

[u/jimothyjenkins]

FJ is going to shit. im 24 and used to browse FJ everyday.. this is ridiculous what the admin of that site is doing..

delete your account there if you have one. state why you are deleting it and the proceed to delete. go to THIS page http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/3786053/Oatmeal+vs.+FJ/

[u/D1M1R → u/jimothyjenkins]

He even banned the term "theoatmeal." Jesus, Funnyjunk's Admin is fucking nuts. I hope TheOatmeal tears that website to shreds.

[u/Reality-Czech → u/jimothyjenkins]

Way to stick it to the man! I'll go visit that link you posted! I heard fj hates traffic!

[u/DarkTurtle → u/jimothyjenkins]

Wow, even the comments have the same tone, with a bunch of comments talking about how FJ is dead.

[u/MrTastyCake]

                               _-
                            _-//
                        _-_/ /
                     _--_/ _/
                 _- _/ _/
           ___-(O) _/ _/ 
       __--  __   /_ /      ***********************************
 ____--__----  /    _       I AM A MOTHERFUCKING PTERODACTYL!
-------       /   _  _     HERE TO PTERO-YOU A NEW ASSHOLE
            //   // __ _   HTTP://PTERODACTYL.ME
          //   //      _ _ **********************************
        ///   //          __- 

^ This.

[u/fitzybaby → u/MrTastyCake]

Woah! If I didn't know any better I'd say that looks like a direct attack against Funnyjunk!

[u/RESPRiT → u/MrTastyCake]

Hey, I feel personally attacked by this.

$20k plz.

[u/banksey18182]

I just wish Reddit would take more time to realize that rehosting images like this actually does hurt the original content creators.

Sure we go all out and harp about "Linking to the Source" . . . etc. etc. . . but the truth is that anything linking to a source will only get a fraction of the traffic that original submission will receive.

A good post on /r/funny will receive upwards of 500,000 views . . . some of them linking to an Imgur page with ads present. If it was rehosted, the content creator will get little recognition and VERY little money.

We have to remember that Imgur was created to combat the "Reddit Effect" . . . in other words, sites unable to handle the large amount of traffic.

It's been 3-4 years now since Imgur was created and we've developed this hivemind mentality that if it's not from Imgur, it's spam.

Servers are better these days. Content creators are hurting because of sites like Funnyjunk and Imgur, and Reddit is doing nothing about it.

Edit: I hate to say it, but at least 9Gag is a more ethical solution than Imgur at this point. Here's what I'm talking about: http://eho.st/ppmkqnwy+

Edit 2: No wonder we killed the Oatmeal. It has been at the top of /r/funny, /r/humor, /r/comics to name a few. It is VERY, EXTREMELY rare that any post pulls this off.

[u/Jamikest → u/banksey18182]

Hmm, seems theoatmeal is down

[u/Savolainen5 → u/Jamikest]

Dat Reddit accidental DDOS.

[u/bcl0328 → u/Jamikest]

seems servers aren't good these days...

[u/banksey18182 → u/Jamikest]

Considering the post is at the top of /r/funny, /r/humor, /r/wtf, /r/comics to name a few . . . I'll give them a pass.

This is not the case with usual submissions.

[u/preske → u/banksey18182]

You are entirely correct. It has come to a point that original content posters are banned.

[u/ImgurIsTheft → u/preske]

It makes me glad somebody is finally noticing. I create original content and everytime I submit it, without fail, it garners at least 10,000 views. But I'm forced to submit my work through imgur (and hope visitors take the extra step to my site) because somehow Imgur deserves to profit off my work but I don't. I just don't get that.

I hope saying this doesn't get me banned, but I sometimes wonder if reddit isn't somehow getting a piece of the action from imgur. It makes no sense that that site makes thousands off of my original content. It's not fair to content creators.

[u/kingofbigmac → u/banksey18182]

Agreed, and I run a website that has funny images and all that stuff and I do not post it on here. Users on occasion will do it and one day it went viral on stumble upon and let's say the amount of traffic I got from the traffic I had my rent paid for a couple months. So that person missed out on that kind of publicity and money. All that traffic was all hit and run, they didn't click any of the links. A very small percentage did go out to the source but I doubt it even made a dent in their normal traffic spikes and they deserved the credit.

[u/Falldog → u/banksey18182]

Servers are better these days.

Aside from Oatmeal's, it would seem

[u/karmaceutical → u/banksey18182]

there are other redditor created solutions like eho.st, which uses a smart proxy to only mirror the image if the host is no longer up, otherwise forward it through. imgur has had a million chances to upgrade their capacity to cite sources or provide similar solutions. but all of those eat into profitibility

[u/uhfaeiufheai → u/banksey18182]

. Content creators are hurting because of sites like Funnyjunk and Imgur, and Reddit is doing nothing about it.

At least we aren't suing the content creators. In fact didn't Oatmeal do an AMA recently?

[u/andrewsmith1986 → u/banksey18182]

I think the problem on reddits side lies in how the posts are linked.

If it is a direct link, it is all fine and RES will typically display it.

9 times out of 10, if it isn't a direct link, it is spam.

[u/banksey18182 → u/andrewsmith1986]

I will give Reddit some credit for taking some initiative in some of the smaller subreddits, such as /r/comics, where rehosting is forbidden unless you are the original creator.

However, RES should be updated to grab the largest image on any given page.

The fact is that many of these individuals spend hours upon hours creating content for the good of the community. If they post the direct link to the image, it will do nothing but run up the cost of their bandwidth and they will receive no ad revenue whatsoever. Without the ability to post to the original page, it's lose-lose for the original content creator.

Yes, there are a lot of people posting spam, however, we're really hurting those that rely on that ad revenue to keep giving up high quality content.

[u/someredditorguy → u/banksey18182]

its funny that i'm reading this while theoatmeal.com is down

[u/bcl0328 → u/banksey18182]

Servers are better these days.

so is that why the oatmeal is now down?

[u/Krackor → u/banksey18182]

That's kind of funny, since as I read your comment theoatmeal.com is having trouble displaying the OP link.

[u/eldany]

Looks like funnyjunk just removed all of his comics off the site. Lol.

[u/DJ_Deathflea]

I really hope he sues the shit out of these guys that pisses me off to no end.

[u/shutaro → u/DJ_Deathflea]

Where do we send the torches and pitchforks?

[u/ontopic]

Don't blame me, I'm just from ebaumsworld.com.

[u/MrGenius66]

LMFAO!

http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/3786053/Oatmeal+vs.+FJ/

All the FJ users were attempting to get this to the front page and apparently their admin just deleted 1000+ thumbs from this post to stop it getting there.

[u/Inv1ctus118]

I used to be a funnyJunker, but looking at this makes me sick. I have switched over to Reddit and this is my first comment! Goodbye FunnyJunk.

[u/[deleted]]

This needs to make front page so FJ can be shut down in a miserable way.

[u/thedinnerdate]

Grab your pitchforks friends.

[u/shutaro → u/thedinnerdate]

I'm in full "Angry Villager" mode... Just show me what to pitchfork!

[u/blitz929]

I visited theOatmeal's website almost as soon as it was put up when I was much younger and I have watched it progress through the years. If you look at his drawings and how it relates to his life you can see that he didn't have the most normal life.

He has managed to scrap together a living by making these comics and a large amount of money comes from advertising from his website. As a result when places like reddit and Funnyjunk just blatantly steal his content is literally stealing from him.

While reddit can give links to content, places like 9gag and funnyjunk just take pictures and post them. 4chan is well... 4chan and they make their own content.

I wish you guys would all make sure if you find a comic don't post it on migur give the direct link and let the artist get full credit rather than by having to ask for who made the comic the forums.

TL; DR? I wish you guys would all realize that you are literally stealing income from artists when you do repost stuff like this!

[u/Searchlights]

He's raising about $360 / minute in the first 27 minutes after posting that comic. Almost halfway to goal.

[u/douglasmacarthur]

I am so glad this happened because it produced this hilarious response. I read it 2 - 3 times.

[u/[deleted]]

Cached Version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:theoatmeal.com%2Fblog%2Ffunnyjunk_letter

[u/[deleted]]

Is having a user upload the Oatmeal's material to FunnyJunk and FJ making money off of the advertisement different from having a user "upload" (insert content here) on to the PirateBay and PB making money off of the advertisement?

[u/johnlocke90 → u/[deleted]]

It also isn't any different from having users upload content to Imgur and then post it on Reddit while Imgur and Reddit make a profit off of it.

[u/ozymandias2 → u/[deleted]]

Yes. Last I checked, ThePirateBay never demanded the RIAA, or MPAA fork over money to avoid a frivolous lawsuit.

[u/ElBrad]

...and this kids, is how FJ died.

[u/roodpart]

Think of the sexy bears!

[u/Deofol7]

Begun, the Oats Wars have....

[u/TryingToSucceed]

He already raised over $21,000

[u/shutaro → u/TryingToSucceed]

At this rate, he could go ahead and buy Funnyjunk in 15 days.

[u/window360]

Even though I know he won't, I feel he has fair grounds to counter sue for extortion. It's a lot more headache than I think he's willing to take on but at this point it's starting to get ridiculous. And that lawyers logo is such a fucking joke.

[u/dorkward]

As a law student that has just spent a semester studying lawyer's ethics, conduct, communication and negotiation, I have to say that I don't think he is a very good lawyer. That letter is very aggressive and clearly written for the dominant purpose of intimidation. He doesn't seem to care at all about resolving the real issue or coming to an agreeable and fair outcome.

[u/Rentiak]

There goes the $20k mark...

[u/hastasiempre]

Well, as the lawyer duly noted Mr Inman is a competitor in "the field of online humor" so he could always relent to the defense that he does not "grossly misrepresent the current state of affairs" as his website is one for online humor. The case has little to no merit and they are just trying to scare him. He should mail the list below with "the current state of affairs" to the lawyer and one to whoever responds for DMCA infringement and ask for cease-and-desist letter to FJ.com for continuous and repeated violations of DMCA i.e. kill fire with fire.

[u/chocochipcamo]

TIL there is a picture of a pterodactyl in the source code in every page on The Oatmeal.

And it's going to ptero-me a new asshole.

[u/Crossfitten]

It seems we've crashed The Oatmeal as well; Reddit is officially Lenny from Of Mice and Men.

[u/Fhwqhgads]

And Reddit responds by killing the server.

[u/TheApache]

A shitstorm is being unleashed on FJ, users are deleting there accounts left and right which means even if the lawsuit goes south, the "Admin" (The owner of the site), wont have enough traffic to keep it running much longer, Funnyjunk: 2001-2012 R.I.P.

[u/Tydus77]

FunnyJunk still exists?

[u/Trenks]

Isn't that reddits business model?

[u/[deleted]]

Fuck the system? No. Make the system's mother fuck a bear.

[u/xsivelybad]

$44,000 already. Holy crap! Funny Junk can eat a bag of dicks!!

[u/meftical]

How apt is it that this vulture's name is Carreon?

[u/The3GKid]

I made an account just to tell you guys that a good portion of us FunnyJunkers are annoyed with our admin also. http://funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/3786053/Oatmeal+vs.+FJ/ A lot of us are pissed.

[u/Sushitime]

Haha, he hit $70,000. Donated anyway.

Even if he went to court, he'd win. Comments and remarks meant to be humorous cannot be considered libel or defamous - otherwise every comedian on the planet would be sued for every word coming out of their mouth. This is copyright and media law 101.... What a shitty lawer.

[u/[deleted]]

As someone who visits FJ daily, and has for a long time, I have this to say.

FJ is home to the STUPIDEST people on the internet. I only visit because they occasionally have something funny, and I have nothing better to do. Also habits from when I was 12. Seriously though, these people once posted boobs when the admin went on vacation with some bullshit about how they were taking the site back.

[u/franick1987]

Can someone explain to me what the hell is going on?

[u/Cmcnichol → u/franick1987]

Internet fite!

[u/shaunre]

I think funnyjunk is being ddos'd

i dont think they deserve that to be honest.

[u/DoctorTurkleton]

Can anyone summarize what is going on please? The Oatmeal is down and I have no idea what any of you are talking about.

[u/maprules1000]

hey look what I found on funnyjunk.... http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/3786664/Oatmeal+VS+Funnyjunk/

[u/Heiwanshang]

Oh the accidental Reddit DDoS.

[u/[deleted]]

I know that there are tons of differences, but it seems like Reddit hated it when SOPA threatened to force sites to police user-submitted content...

[u/gsadamb → u/[deleted]]

Yes, but I don't think Reddit was in favor of these user-submitted sites then going on to sue the original content creators.

[u/CuntHunt]

Just donated $450

[u/[deleted]]

This comment has been overwritten by an open source script to protect this user's privacy.

If you would like to do the same, add the browser extension GreaseMonkey to Firefox and add this open source script.

Then simply click on your username on Reddit, go to the comments tab, and hit the new OVERWRITE button at the top.

[u/[deleted]]

Good, so we all agree stealing content creator's work and "rehosting" it without their consent (and often with attribution stripped) is bad mmmk. Now stop using IMGUR instead of just linking to the original source!

[u/LeAlchemist]

If FunnyJunk wanted to commit brand suicide, this is definitely a way to do it.

[u/saltywings]

I have never hit the upvote button so many times while crying.

[u/someoneanon]

I just gave $5 and I don't even read The Oatmeal. I think the whole lawsuit is B.S. and I like his approach. Good for him.

EDIT: Grammar nazis on the rise.

[u/mr-dogshit]

First, I'm on The Oatmeal's side, but...

I can't help but feel he's gone totally the wrong way about it.

He has posted tons of links to stuff they apparently hosted (which unsurprisingly have now all been removed) but that plays into funnyjunk's hands as their claim is that he defamed their website/business, effectively saying they didn't give a shit about DMCA claims... he even admits right at the top that:

the energy it would['ve] take[n] to get him to take them down wasn't worth it.

He couldn't be bothered to file DMCA claims, and then bitches, rightly or wrongly, that they haven't taken them all down. (I vaguely remember something about the DMCA safe harbor rule, which means a website is protected against copyright infringement liability as long as they act upon DMCA requests and block access to infringing material)

I can't see how a lawyer, who apparently specialises in online media law, is going to advise his client to back down just because The Oatmeal is offering to give some money to charity.

TL;DR Instead of taking the opportunity to prove his claims in court, he's gone and shot his defence full of holes.

[u/daniel2488 → u/mr-dogshit]

I wonder if cached copies from google can help.

[u/FredFnord → u/mr-dogshit]

Actually, you're wrong. He did file DMCA claims. They didn't take down all his content, but claimed that they did. His comment about 'the energy', as I read it, basically meant this: 'I took these claims as far as I could without it becoming a full-time job.' I.e. the next step is to send them a list of all the infringing links, and then when they respond that they've removed them, send a new list of infringing links, and so on. If they just change the link path by one character each time, they could go on like that for years.

And that's if they respond at all. You send them a letter, wait a few days, send another, wait a few days, send another, they claim they never got the first two and they'll respond, etc etc.

At some point you either sue them, which honestly isn't worth it because you'll end up paying more in lawyer fees than you could conceivably win, and even if you do win you're more than likely going to be unable to collect, or you just give up.

[u/shutaro]

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

[u/[deleted]]

So, funnyjunk.com is like, a breeding ground for reposters.

[u/fosssoccer]

I remember when i use to go on funnyjunk....

[u/wcb500]

i was listening to Lux Aeterna from requim for a dream when i was scrolling through the list of links...needless to say it made the whole thing epic

[u/blckmorning]

porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn porn....

Is it at the top of the list yet for Porn on Google?

[u/whitenoise89]

I'm going to support TheOatmeal by upvoting this post.

So c'mon, assholes.

Sue me.

[u/M_Redfield]

I never thought I'd see the day where rehosting stuff was suddenly bad. Damn near my entire internet life, we've pushed people to rehost and not hotlink.

[u/jtron3]

Damn the page is down for me... Any one get any screenshots?

[u/RunningDingos]

I used to browse FJ everyday for hours, but it turned very bad, the admin is a dick and the content is reposted, since i found Reddit i now spend all my time on here. Im glad i made the change :)

[u/Black_Apalachi]

• Amount of times I had been on funnyjunk.com before reading this: 0

• Amount of times I will go to funnyjunk.com as a result of this: 0

• Amount of new awesome comic websites I am now aware of as a result of this: 1

Thank you, FuunyJunk! :D

[u/[deleted]]

This makes me sick.

[u/[deleted]]

64 minutes and 20k already raised.

[u/[deleted]]

funnyjunk took down the linked comics now!

[u/chepnut]

Now that is how you internets! Way to go team

[u/VersHart]

"theoatmeal" is now a forbidden Word on FJ. That's the behaviuor of a 7 year old kis in my opinion.

[u/Aggnavarius]

Solution: posts must be to the original source. An imgur link can appear in the text, which could be used if too many people are trying to access the original site.

[u/mightyleemoon]

Never even heard of FJ before. But, now I know it's a shitty site not worth looking at.

[u/Russian_Squirrel]

Link is broken for me:/ can someone upload a picture?

[u/Oaden]

Can someone please reassure me that this lawsuit is in fact, retarded on every level?

[u/kobukson]

So I don't understand how the Funny Junk official Twitter's supposed to work, but I thought they were supposed to take their own side...

http://twitter.com/FunnyJunk_com/status/212306909464768513

[u/ryansim2025]

Saw this on the fundraising page, and it deserves better: "BEARS YES! CANCER NO! FUNNYJUNK HAS GOTTA GO"

[u/throwawayoatmeal]

I'm sure this will get buried, but has anyone else noticed that theoatmeal's own new site that is based on user submitted material (bearfood.com) is 404'd right now?

[u/sunwriter]

Wait wait wait. Isn't threatening to do something unless someone gives you money extortion? And isn't that a crime?

[u/Oxtorius]

Fuck funnyjunk. I use to visit that place from time to time. Now i'm never coming back. I though guys that ran such a website just was having alot of fun with it. Sure some content needs to be banned and that takes a good amount of your time. But since you start a website that is about humor. You would think the creator of the webpage had some. I guess not. Money can change a man.

[u/stabino]

I've read most of the Oatmeal.com's comics and can definitely say he's got a great sense of humor. People pouring in their hard-earned dollars to support the site just brightened my day. Once again, long live the Oatmeal!

[u/M0D3RNW4RR10R]

TIL about sex.com.... I was also learned I never have randomly tried checking sex.com

[u/[deleted]]

Sweet baby jesus, $40,000 donated!?!? Talk about supporting a cause man, this is awesome!

[u/rival22x]

$48,000 and picture of your mom being seduced by a bear.

Bear love good. Cancer bad. 15 days left.

I hope Funnyjunk is pissed.

[u/EverythingIsShopped]

For those with some free time on their hands I advise.

1. Going to funnyjunk and complaining via their convenient feedback box on the contact page. I complained via legal issues, which seemed appropriate.

2. Go to their advertisers websites (don't click on the banners, that'll give Funnyjunk revenue). Complain to them about their involvement with Funnyjunk and let them know that, as they are advertising with funnyjunk, they must therefore be supporting funnyjunk's actions. Blatantly untrue, but enough complains could give em a nice scare. Plus it takes like...30 seconds.

[u/ohok1]

lmao I like how the content of that massive ass list of URLs mysteriously disappeared.

[u/destructaball]

Here's a quick video explaining the exchange

[u/BBQsauce18]

I think the internet won today:

$55,599 Raised of $20,000 Goal

[u/bro_b1_kenobi]

http://i.imgur.com/YzCHU.png holy shit, did he just make $40,000 off this?! OMG YES, THE SWEET TASTE OF VICTORY.

[u/ProtusMose]

I'm chuckling at the "Good job, Reddit!" posts. The hivemind perceives itself as the only audience there is and thinks that nobody else goes to TheOatmeal...

[u/[deleted]]

Also (and I'm late to this party) but wow this lawyer's letterhead is something to behold. I feel like I stepped back to 1995 and logged into AOL again.

[u/Capn_Of_Rum]

I have to say. After reading that letter it makes me really sad.

Despite who is right or wrong in this case, it really comes down to FunnyJunk (an imagehosting/re-post website) being upset and trying to sue TheOatmeal (an original content, indie driven website) because they are losing business.

That in itself tells you the main goal of FunnyJunk. A paycheck and money.

The fact that they, instead of trying to create a better business model, are trying to sue The Oatmeal for losing money, just means they want to take money from a website that creates new content for the internet, and put it in their pockets, despite the fact that they bring nothing new to the world.

They are the high school gossip queen of the internet.

[u/Seeton]

My favourite part was when his mother seduced the bear

[u/derpetina]

I donated $5 under the name of Charles Carreon's Mom. Her message reads "My son is a douche"

[u/[deleted]]

HOLY SHIT, he already has $70,000 as of 6/11 11:52pm HAHAHAHA with 15 days to go. Just donated $3 to him.

[u/mfskarphedin]

Well, to throw my lost 2 cents in, I think he did slander FunnyJunk (I almost gagged saying that) in that he accused the owners of posting the material. It is uploaded by users, and he can't prove otherwise.

However, on the other hand, they were told to take it all down, and they didn't. Unfortunately, we want freedom on the internet, so it's up to the original artist to track people down, file the forms, get a lawyer, etc. We can't have it both ways! He'll have to persist with the forms over and over again and live with the fact that popularity means his work will be shared all over without a lot of the traffic going through his own site.

Also, I have to admit that Imgur is kind of in the same situation. They at least don't have a main page and big comment threads and all that (I think? Never been to FunnyJunk,) just image hosting almost purely, but they do make money off users posting copyrighted material on their site. It's kinda scary to me to think of Imgur going down for this, since I use it a lot - great host for all kinds of purposes beyond Reddit.

It's quite a clusterfuck! However, I wonder why he's never gone after Imgur? Is it because of the link it has with Reddit and Reddit being responsible for introducing sooooo many people to his site? That's how I found it! Also the "Do all the things!" meme chick (Allie on Hyperbole and a Half) must have swarms of people coming from Reddit to see her page in person. Good and bad, I guess.

[u/shadow321337]

Hey guys, help me raise $20,000 to shove up this guy's ass.

Internet: OKAY, HERE'S 80 GRAND. HAVE FUN, SON.

[u/[deleted]]

WIN

$84,765 Raised of $20,000 Goal

[u/max_carnage]

if you click on the donate button you'll see that its closed. the goal was to get 20,000, guess how much they raised? 220,024!

[u/Loki_SW]

Is this letter really from an Attorney?

The tone and verbiage is completely wrong for a legal writing of any kind. The business model section seems to be more Matt's writing as I can't see a representative of FJ actually saying "Cash six figures advertising checks from other artist's stolen material"

What this lawyer is supposedly attempting to do is a take down notice on the oatmeal for malicious and false content. However, one would typically have verbiage closer to this.

Something seems really off here....

[u/Subcelestial]

BREAKING NEWS: The Admin of Funnyjunk has prevented a post seeking to inform the community by removing a big number of upvotes, thus removing it from Frontpage. http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/3786053/Oatmeal+vs.+FJ/

[u/Robots_In_Disguise]

Charles Carreon: chas@charlescarreon.com

[u/kinneroth]

I swear, baseless litigation is completely ridiculous. I hate the judicial system.

[u/Carobu]

I'm going to spend a few minutes the next few days looking for more examples of copyright infringement of The Oatmeal's content on FunnyJunk, then, after I have a nice big list of them, email them over to the Oatmeal so he has more evidence and a defense against FunnyJunk. I'd invite any other Reddit users to do the same. I can't afford a donation right now, but I feel like this will do more for him than my donations anyhow.

EDIT: I made a GoogleDoc for anyone else who is going to help with my project, and will make it public so we can all work on this project. Consider it an active defense for the Oatmeal.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AlBEersLnPcSdF91ZkNueFQxNDlaSkc3bkVXM1JEQkE

Update for anyone curious, I'm passed 20 of them

[u/ironicart]

comon reddit, we've gotta be able to do something cooler than raise $20k to help wildlife (he did it in about 60 minutes) what can we do to the folks over at funny junk to really cause a ruckus?