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 I

Exhibit I

Internet shocker: Kindness wins - Salon.com

6/29/12 1:43 AM

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The world is overflowing with petty, selfish losers who happen
to have Internet access. And usually, the rest of us just accept
their trolling and content pilfering and overall grossness as part
of the price we pay for sharing our ideas and being able to watch
all the videos of otters holding hands we want.

http://www.salon.com/2012/06/12/internet_shocker_kindness_wins/

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Page 1 of 5

Internet shocker: Kindness wins - Salon.com

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But sometimes, somebody has to take a stand for sanity. This is
turning out to be a very good week for that sort of thing. First,
British comic Isabel Fay went viral with her ode to online aholes, “Thank You Hater!” On Tuesday, she released the song as
a single, with all the proceeds going to Beat Bullying, a U.K.
organization that works with young people to mentor them and
stop the cycle of bullying.
Then there’s Matthew Inman, and his online comic The Oatmeal.
Like a lot of its fans, I admit to harboring a long-standing love of
The Oatmeal based largely on its grammar posts. (They had me
at “Literally.”) But Inman really jumped into online sainthood
territory this week when he threw it down against FunnyJunk and
its ridiculous attempt to extract a cool 20 grand from him.

6/29/12 1:43 AM

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It started a year ago, when The Oatmeal noted FunnyJunk’s habit
of lifting its comics and reposting them on its advertisersupported site: “What should I do about FunnyJunk.com?,” he
wrote. “They’ve practically stolen my entire website.” As Inman
pointed out at the time, it wasn’t just his content FunnyJunk was
lifting, nor is FunnyJunk the only site that pulls this crap. But
what distinguishes FunnyJunk is that it responded to being called
out on its behavior in an especially lame manner.
First, it did actually remove any images it could find with “The
Oatmeal” in the title. But its admins mitigated any goodwill that
gesture might have engendered when they also sent out an email
to all its members saying that “The Oatmeal wants to sue
FunnyJunk and shut it down!,” urging its fans to deluge Inman
with protest. As Inman explained at the time, “I never had plans
to sue FunnyJunk and get it shut down; I just wanted my stolen
comics removed.” Reasonable, right, especially when hundreds
of his comics still remained on the site at the time?

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Not to the folks at FunnyJunk, who, hilariously, sent Inman a
letter from Charles Carreon, Attorney at Law, this week,
claiming “defamation and false advertising” and “willful
copyright infringement,” and demanding “the immediate removal
of false statements about FunnyJunk.” Also upsetting to the folks
at FunnyJunk – The Oatmeal’s obviously incredibly threatening
Pterodactyl-themed imagery, and the fact The Oatmeal comes up
prominently when FunnyJunk “is punched into the Google
search engine.” I really love that sentence. It’s so 1970s IBM
data entry. For the coup de grace, Charles Carreon, Attorney at
Law, then demanded The Oatmeal “remove all mention of
FunnyJunk and FunnyJunk.com from your website” and “deliver
me a check in the amount of $20,000 payable to the order of
FunnyJunk.”
Ladies and gentlemen, the ballsiest letter ever written.

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Upon receiving it, Inman was somehow not moved to bust out
his checkbook. Instead, he mused on his blog, “You want ME to
pay YOU $20,000 for hosting MY unlicensed comics on YOUR
shitty website for the past three years?” And he decided to do
something else. He challenged his fans to raise that amount
anyway. Then, he promised to take a picture of the money, along
with “a drawing of your mom seducing a Kodiak bear.” (Side
note: Anything about Your Mom: always gold.) The money itself
would go to the National Wildlife Federation and the American
Cancer Society.

http://www.salon.com/2012/06/12/internet_shocker_kindness_wins/

Page 2 of 5

Internet shocker: Kindness wins - Salon.com

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6/29/12 1:43 AM

In its first hour, Operation BearLove Good, Cancer Bad met its
fundraising goal. It has already netted $115,706 for two fantastic
causes. Oh, and the most popular image currently on FunnyJunk?
Inman’s annotated copy of the letter from Carreon. Good one,
Internet.
The common mistake that bullies make is assuming that because
someone is nice that he or she is weak. Those traits have nothing
to do with each other. In fact, it takes considerable strength and
character to be a good person. It takes hard work to not get
dragged down into the muck that the cretins are constantly
flinging at you. That’s what makes what Isabel Fay and Matthew
Inman — and the fans that have rallied around them —
accomplished in such a short time so great. It’s the way they met
steaming crap with good humor and supreme generosity. They
didn’t just make sport of their trolls — although they did that
effectively. It’s that they kept going. That they turned their
energy toward accomplishing something meaningful. An
opportunity to help people and animals. As Inman says, “I’m
hoping that philanthropy trumps douchebaggery and greed.”
Amazingly, it does. And it also turns out that funny, quite
Close
beautifully, trumps junk.
Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon
and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years
Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on
Twitter: @embeedub.
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VerbalRemedy
TUESDAY, JUN 12, 2012 02:04 PM PDT

Yay! I knew you'd pick this up!
Permalink Flag

http://www.salon.com/2012/06/12/internet_shocker_kindness_wins/

Page 3 of 5

Internet shocker: Kindness wins - Salon.com

6/29/12 1:43 AM

Graz65
TUESDAY, JUN 12, 2012 03:28 PM PDT

The Oatmeal and Matt are just as great as watching a unicorn
pooping out a rainbow. When I saw the story on my FB feed
yesterday, I knew the response would be big, but not this huge!
Permalink Flag

Sam in Romania
TUESDAY, JUN 12, 2012 08:49 PM PDT

It's LITERALLY like someone is transcribing you while you're
speaking about these topics and periods and dashes are to
indicate a verbal pause.
Permalink Flag

Meander61
WEDNESDAY, JUN 13, 2012 05:48 AM PDT

Charles Carreon, Attorney at Law and FunnyJunk ignored a
fairly powerful law of the Internet: the Streisand Effect, an
"online phenomenon in which an attempt to hide or remove a
piece of information has the unintended consequence of
publicizing the information more widely."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
The Oatmeal, for the win.
Permalink Flag

SBraxton
WEDNESDAY, JUN 13, 2012 06:58 AM PDT

Also a big win for the Internet this week: Anita Sarkeesian of
Feminist Frequency has received more than 10 times her
Kickstarter funding goal after enduring a massive harassment
campaign because she plans to produce a YouTube series
examining female stereotypes in video games.
Permalink Flag

Krishna
WEDNESDAY, JUN 13, 2012 09:31 PM PDT

Yep, I agree. Alas, stories of Rebecca Black are most certainly
trumped by "The Oatmeal Counter-Attack".
Permalink Flag
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deselected
SUNDAY, JUN 17, 2012 07:19 PM PDT

http://censoriousdouchebag.wordpress.com -- Charles Carreon's
fake blog
Permalink Flag

http://www.salon.com/2012/06/12/internet_shocker_kindness_wins/

Page 4 of 5

Internet shocker: Kindness wins - Salon.com

6/29/12 1:43 AM

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http://www.salon.com/2012/06/12/internet_shocker_kindness_wins/

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