The lawyer representing FunnyJunk.com admits he was caught off guard by Matthew Inman’s response to his legal threat according to Digital Life on Today. After discussing the potential federal lawsuit for defamation with his own attorney, Matthew launched a rebuttal that only a popular, high-traffic generating, snarky cartoonist could come up with: He’s raising the money demanded by FunnyJunk’s attorney, going to take a picture of it along with a cartoon of the attorney’s mother seducing a kodiak bear and sending it to the attorney. The money will then be split evenly and donated to the American Cancer Society and the National Wildlife Federation. He raised the demanded $20,000 within an hour and at the time of this writing has raised over $115,000 through a site called IndieGoGo that operates similarly to Kickstarter.
“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. “I’m completely unfamiliar really with this style of responding to a legal threat ? I’ve never really seen it before.”
The Digital Life article also notes that Charles Carreon (FunnyJunk attorney) is questioning if the type of fundraising is a violation of IndieGoGo’s terms and has asked the site to disable the fundraising campaign – if successful would deprive the American Cancer Society and the National Wildlife Federation of $50,000+ each.
The cartoon to be sent to the attorney depicting his mother seducing a bear:
Bad legal representation, FunkyJunk. Next time, find a lawyer who’s familiar with who he’s going after.
The only surprise is how much money has been raised for charity. Very heartwarming.
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I think asking IndieGoGo to take down the fundraising campaign is going to backfire if it were successful.
Smart.
Stupidity all around. How do you have the energy to write about people stealing your content, but not have the energy to send a cease and desist? (I understand that protecting your stuff on the internet is a full time job, it sucks. And yes, you do have to pick and chose you battles.) FunkyJunk is just stupid outright. Don’t steal content and get angry when confronted. And then go tattle to IndieGoGo about the situation that you started. The amount of money raised is ridiculous and amazing though. Come on Alan, have someone sue you and you’ll be rich!
I believe it’s FunnyJunk, not FunkyJunk. Either way, they’re junk.
FUNNYjunk…not funkyjunk.
Thanks guys. It is FUNNYjunk. Not sure how it got in my head that it was funkyjunk.
That’s weird. I was reading “FunkyJunk” too. Really, that’s a MUCH better name, and navigating to that site doesn’t make my eyes bleed.
I’m sticking with funkyjunk.
Don’t feel bad ? I’ve been reading it as “FunkyJunk” since this whole story broke. Stupid name, stupid site.
Don’t be a internet lawyer if you don’t know the internet.
I’m announcing the name of my new band…FUNKY JUNK! Don’t anybody try to steal that name. I know people.