Cancer rarely bothers with a forwarding address
There is something ironic about a lawyer specialising in cases involving the Internet being surprised by online backlash to a frivolous lawsuit:
I’m completely unfamiliar really with this style of responding to a legal threat — I’ve never really seen it before,
What started as an ill-considered and almost certainly ill fate attempt to sue the Oatmeal by FunnyJunk (Which seems to only live up to half it’s name) has now turned into the undignified spectacle of a lawyer steadily digging himself a deep, deep hole.
The short version is that FunnyJunk, a website the Oatmeal called out last year for hosting his content without attribution, is now suing the Oatmeal’s owner, Matthew Inman. FunnyJunk seems to be basing this on Matthew ranking for their name and pointing out the fact that their users have posted his content without attribution. Matthew responded with another post, stating that instead of paying the lawyer and FunnyJunk the $20,000 that they asked for, he would prefer to raise the money and donate it to charity.
The lawyer involved, after some public confusion and hand wringing, has now decided to sue everyone. Including the charities. Pope Hat is covering this story very well, and it is worth following the links and reading it there instead of just repeating the details here.
Even after it seems that Charles Carreon can’t go further he does. The latest development has this lawyer suing everyone, including the two charities The Oatmeal’s Matthew Inman is aiming to donate to as a part of his response to the original letter.