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The Oatmeal Fights Legal Threat, Raises $20,000 in an Hour

mashable.com

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Re: The Oatmeal Fights Legal Threat, Raises $20,000 in an Hour

#71

Post by a_bonobo »

Jimmie wrote: post #68
jontas wrote: post #63

I'd love to take that $20-40k and put it towards a company that does nothing but monitor websites like Funny Junk and issue takedown notices on the behalf of the content owners. Companies like this probably exist, but I'm sure they don't come cheap and are used primarily by the big players (eg music labels, movie studios). I think it is great that Matt is donating the money to charity. However, the idea of putting th…

I'm curious about this too. Use something like Tineye and check new Funnyjunk submissions against The Oatmeals image archive. Aside from the hardware it's a tiny amount of work for 1 human to monitor the results.

...until the company starts to monitor sites like Reddit and Imgur and suddenly, all the re-hosted stuff that lands on Reddit on a daily basis leads to the "good" Imgur being sued by the machine that formerly was used to combat the "evil" Funnyjunk.

Re: The Oatmeal Fights Legal Threat, Raises $20,000 in an Hour

#72

Post by snowwrestler »

jontas wrote: post #63

I'd love to take that $20-40k and put it towards a company that does nothing but monitor websites like Funny Junk and issue takedown notices on the behalf of the content owners. Companies like this probably exist, but I'm sure they don't come cheap and are used primarily by the big players (eg music labels, movie studios). I think it is great that Matt is donating the money to charity. However, the idea of putting th…

Consider the offsetting financial incentives here.

Sites like FunnyJunk can be created by a small team, allow the upload of a ton of copyrighted content by users, and then run ads next to copyrighted content. Boom, instant money, and if they do well, maybe an acquisition (see: YouTube). All they have to do is keep up with DMCA takedowns, which are few and far between from small content producers like The Oatmeal.

Meanwhile, if you want to build a company to automate content protection, you have to go find deep-pocketed content creators from day one. I don't know of any way to run ads against the creation of DMCA takedowns.

So the financial incentives are totally asymmetric. It's way easier and more lucrative to create a platform for infringing content, than for protecting it. Until that changes, small creators like The Oatmeal will get victimized.

Re: The Oatmeal Fights Legal Threat, Raises $20,000 in an Hour

#73

Post by otoburb »

snowwrestler wrote: post #72
jontas wrote: post #63

I'd love to take that $20-40k and put it towards a company that does nothing but monitor websites like Funny Junk and issue takedown notices on the behalf of the content owners. Companies like this probably exist, but I'm sure they don't come cheap and are used primarily by the big players (eg music labels, movie studios). I think it is great that Matt is donating the money to charity. However, the idea of putting th…

Consider the offsetting financial incentives here. Sites like FunnyJunk can be created by a small team, allow the upload of a ton of copyrighted content by users, and then run ads next to copyrighted content. Boom, instant money, and if they do well, maybe an acquisition (see: YouTube). All they have to do is keep up with DMCA takedowns, which are few and far between from small content producers like The Oatmeal. Mea…

I can't help but feel that Pinterest was on your mind when you wrote your comment as a hyper-modern day poster child. If not, then it sure sprang right into mine.

Re: The Oatmeal Fights Legal Threat, Raises $20,000 in an Hour

#74

Post by pi18n »

SonicSoul wrote: post #49
pi18n wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's not a comic genius, he's a marketing genius. His comics are actually quite banal; everyone hates their printers, a list of reasons why makes us feel good but isn't actually funny.

um. i guess you have not read "Why Captain Higgins is my favorite parasitic worm" http://theoatmeal.com/comics/captain_higgins Still think its banal and not funny? does everyone hate parasites that can turn ants into zombies?

Of course not everyone would agree with me that it is banal, but I have read a number of them I've seen linked here and there, including the above. I didn't find any of them particularly amusing. Nor did I like the artwork.

Re: The Oatmeal Fights Legal Threat, Raises $20,000 in an Hour

#75

Post by bhb916 »

sparknlaunch wrote: post #38

While this is a great story likely to go down in Internet history, it seems a risky strategy. Sure he raised $20k but seems like this will just fuel the fire of the FunnyJunk lawyers. There have been more trivial legal cases than this one - that could go on for a long time.

He's not going to have to pay for legal representation. There are plenty of lawyers who will take this case pro bono.

Re: The Oatmeal Fights Legal Threat, Raises $20,000 in an Hour

#76

Post by sirclueless »

Kluny wrote: post #57
TomGullen wrote: post #6

Is there any chance that FunnyJunk has played the Oatmeal for promotional purposes here?

Speaking for myself, I have no more desire to go to funnyjunk than I did before this mess started.

That's not how advertising works. You are certainly more aware of FunnyJunk now. For example, the next time you see a link that points there you will probably pay more attention than you would otherwise.

Re: The Oatmeal Fights Legal Threat, Raises $20,000 in an Hour

#78

Post by dustywusty »

jontas wrote: post #63

I'd love to take that $20-40k and put it towards a company that does nothing but monitor websites like Funny Junk and issue takedown notices on the behalf of the content owners. Companies like this probably exist, but I'm sure they don't come cheap and are used primarily by the big players (eg music labels, movie studios). I think it is great that Matt is donating the money to charity. However, the idea of putting th…

So, like MarkMonitor or InternetIdentity.

Re: The Oatmeal Fights Legal Threat, Raises $20,000 in an Hour

#79

Post by beedogs »

mikerice wrote: post #39
wickedchicken wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which left both rivals better off in every way yeah, tupac is rolling in money right now

his estate is

sorta beside the point. the whole "being dead" part sort of precludes him from spending any of that rap beef money.

Re: The Oatmeal Fights Legal Threat, Raises $20,000 in an Hour

#80

Post by drostie »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #16

I wonder if you can complain to the bar. Seems like a number of lawyers have taken up the "shakedown" model and been penalized for it. You should be able to complain to. The bar that this lawyer reflects badly on the profession for not doing his research.

One thing which I remember seeing once was that Lawyer A had emailed site B with some threat of a lawsuit, and B's lawyer immediately filed in court for a declaration that A's threat was frivolous and harrassing, so that B should get some sort of automatic damages if A ever sends another communication on the same topic again.

I wasn't sure what legal principles were involved, or whether that declaration was granted, but the whole idea was pretty kickass; "this is so obviously something which you can't sue me for that I'm going to have a court shove that fact up your rear end."

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