Carreon v. Inman et al

Filing 25

DECLARATION of Kurt Opsahl in Opposition to 20 Ex Parte Application For Temporary Restraining Order and Order to Shaw Cause Re Preliminary Injunction filed byMatthew Inman. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit A, # 2 Exhibit B, # 3 Exhibit C, # 4 Exhibit D, # 5 Exhibit E, # 6 Exhibit F, # 7 Exhibit G, # 8 Exhibit H, # 9 Exhibit I, # 10 Exhibit J, # 11 Exhibit K, # 12 Exhibit L, # 13 Exhibit M, # 14 Exhibit N)(Related document(s) 20 ) (Opsahl, Kurt) (Filed on 7/1/2012)

Exhibit J

Exhibit J

Cartoonist turns lawsuit threat into $100K charity fundraiser - D...

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Cartoonist turns lawsuit threat
into $100K charity fundraiser

Twitter

By Rosa Golijan
Updated 7:43 p.m. ET
"I'd rather just focus on writing comics," a young man told me when I asked
him why he responded to a lawsuit threat by starting a rather successful
charity fundraiser for the American Cancer Society and the National Wildlife
Federation. Sounds strange and somewhat illogical, right?
Well, keep reading, because — over $100,000 in donations later — it's
probably the most reasonable decision you'll encounter on the Internet today.
Even though many people don't recognize his name, 29-year-old Matthew
"The Oatmeal" Inman is a popular cartoonist. You've probably seen plenty of
his work — such as "10 Words You Need To Stop Misspelling," "What It's
Like To Own An Apple Product," or "Cat vs Internet" — in your Facebook
feed, on Twitter, or on your favorite blog at some point. It's almost
impossible to avoid Inman online.
The popularity of Inman's work does have downsides though: Occasionally

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6/29/12 12:28 AM

Cartoonist turns lawsuit threat into $100K charity fundraiser - D...

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some websites will repost it without asking or crediting him. More often than
not, these websites will even profit from this practice.
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About a year ago, Inman got fed up with a website — called FunnyJunk
— which had become particularly prone to re-hosting and monetizing his
work. He wrote a blog post declaring that FunnyJunk had "practically stolen
[his] entire website." The website's owner responded by claiming that Inman
was threatening to sue him and removing any content which referenced "The
Oatmeal."
Even though plenty of his content remained on FunnyJunk, without any
reference to his pseudonym, Inman just didn't have energy to file DMCA
takedown notices to deal with it. "Let's just leave it alone, I thought," he told
me. "That's how it was for a year."
But oddly enough, the folks behind FunnyJunk decided they wanted to revisit
the whole situation, almost exactly a year later. Inman discovered this when
someone knocked on his door to serve him with papers about a week ago. "It
was 8 p.m. — I was having a sushi-making night," Inman explained. The
owner of FunnyJunk was threatening to file a federal lawsuit unless Inman
paid $20,000 in damages.
"Is it going to get worse?" Inman wondered. He consulted a lawyer and sat on
the letter for about a week before finally posting it online, along with his
rebuttal and an explanation of what he'll do. (His lawyer also mailed a formal
older

reply to FunnyJunk's representative as well, of course.)

newer

"I don't want to get tied up in courtroom nonsense. I don't want to pay more
money to my lawyer," Inman declared in that blog post. He outlined why he
believed that it was silly that FunnyJunk is demanding money "for hosting
[his] unlicensed comics […] for the past three years."
"I've got a better idea," he wrote. "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."

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The Oatmeal

older

newer

Inman dubbed his response "Operation BearLove Good Cancer Bad" and
gave it a 15-day deadline. He announced it on Monday, at about 1 p.m. PT.
About one hour later, he'd met the $20,000 fundraising goal. About 24 hours
later, he'd raised over $117,000 with donations coming from over 8,000
people.
When I reached out to
FunnyJunk's lawyer,
Charles Carreon, to discuss
the situation, he explained
that he'd removed his
contact information from
his website due to the large
number of people who'd
contacted him after
Inman's blog post went
online.
"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.

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IndieGoGo

6/29/12 12:28 AM

Cartoonist turns lawsuit threat into $100K charity fundraiser - D...

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"I'm completely unfamiliar really with this style of responding to a legal
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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.
Carreon tells me that Inman's blog post was interpreted as a complaint
— similar to a DMCA takedown notice — and that the content the cartoonist
listed in it was removed from the FunnyJunk website promptly. He also
explains that he believes Inman's fundraiser to be a violation of the terms of
service of IndieGoGo, the website being used to collect donations, and has
sent a request to disable the fundraising campaign. (The fundraising website
has only responded with an automated message so far.)
"I don't think that what I did was unreasonable," Carreon says while
discussing the initial demands sent to Inman. He tells me that while this
situation is unique, he is typically open to negotiation. He ended the
conversation with a promise to keep me updated on how things are resolved
and on whether he takes any legal action against the folks who have been
harassing him since Inman's "BearLove Good Cancer Bad" fundraising
campaign started.
"It's an education in the power of mob psychology and the Internet," Carreon
told me.

older

In the meantime, Inman is trying to figure out how to explain that he needs
to withdraw over $100,000 so that he can photograph it next to a drawing of

newer

someone's mother attempting to sweet-talk a bear.
"I think I might need an armored truck," he mused.

When tech goes to heck

Did your GPS ever lead you awry? Has your not-so-smart phone's spellcheck spelled trouble for
you. TODAY's Jenna Wolfe looks at some common technology glitches that annoy us.

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Want more tech news, silly puns, or amusing links? You'll get plenty of all
three if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following
her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling
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