The story so far: Matt Inman, AKA The Oatmeal, complains about Funnyjunk.com using his comics without permission. Intellectual property lawyer Charles Carreon sends him a letter asking
Attorney Charles Carreon (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
for $20,000 as recompense for this “defamation.” Instead, Matt Inman sends him a letter explaining why he’s not going to do that, raises more than $140,000 for charity, and draws a comic insinuating that Funnyjunk's collective mother would not be entirely unhappy about making love to a Kodiak bear. Charles Carreon finds himself at the center of an internet firestorm.
When I talked to Carreon last night, however, he didn’t seem the least bit fazed by all the negative attention he’s been getting throughout the internets, or even the more aggressive incursions onto his Twitter account or WordPress site. In fact, he seemed excited about this bizarre new world he had stumbled into. For him, the Funnyjunk stuff is old news – this is about himself, Matt Inman, and the great wide internet.
In his 20 years as a lawyer, he says, he’s written hundreds of letters like the one he sent Inman, but the response to this one was unique.
“So someone takes one of my letters and takes it apart. That doesn’t mean you can just declare netwar, that doesn’t mean you can encourage people to hack my website, to brute force my WordPress installation so I have to change my password. You can’t encourage people to violate my trademark and violate my twitter name and associate me with incompetence with stupidity, and douchebaggery,” he says. “And if that’s where the world is going I will fight with every ounce of force in this 5’11 180 pound frame against it. I’ve got the energy, and I’ve got the time.”
It's a bold notion, saying that you've got as much time and energy as the internet.
He compares Inman’s charity campaign to when people would sell tickets to throw balls at women being accused of witches in a dunking tank. Money for charity is raised, of course, but the witches aren’t in on it. He may have a very difficult time proving that Inman “instigated attacks,” as he said on his website, but he’s certain he can find some legal recourse for what’s going on right now – “California code is just so long, but there’s something in there about this,” he says.
Carreon is mostly fascinated about plumbing the depths of internet rage, and he’s diving in. He says he takes the time to respond to hate mail, but marvels at the extent of the language people use.
“What I see is a world that is transforming before my eyes, and I’m very fortunate to be at the forefront of a lot of technical development, and you can’t learn anything being timid,” he says.
“My hero is Cyrano de Bergerac, and he said that he’d rather have an enemy than kiss ass, just to sum it up,” he continued. “I welcome the opportunity to confront legally the misuse of a new technology.”
This bizarre saga may be just beginning.
