Charles Carreon: Doubling Down on the Douchenozzle

Monday, June 18, 2012
One of my favorite webcomics these days is The Oatmeal, a slightly raunchy dissertation on geekery, douchebags and living in the modern world. I also love, love, love their Horrible Cards, which I totally buy for all my friends and family.

So I've been following the whole FunnyJunk vs The Oatmeal Internet debacle with some amusement. There's a great synopsis (including some legal opinion) over at Popehat, which you can find here, here, here and here.

In case the Popehat entries are TLDR for you, here's the short version:
  • FunnyJunk has apparently been publishing the comics of Matthew Inman, the proprietor of The Oatmeal, on their site for years without attribution.
  • Mr. Inman did not care for this, and called them out on their theft of his material.
  • FunnyJunk then retained a self-described Internet Law expert named Charles Carreon to send Mr. Inman what's called a "demand letter" whereby the attorney demands restitution for whatever wrongs they perceive have been done to them. In this case, restitution consisted of $20K, payable to FunnyJunk.
  • The Oatmeal responded in a truly spectacular fashion, expressing disparaging opinions about Mr. Carreon's legal opinion, knowledge regarding the internet, and the sexual proclivities of Mr. Carreon's mother. And because it's The Oatmeal, Mr. Inman then turned the entire thing into a charity drive for the National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society.
  • Mr. Carreon then basically issued a "I can't believe HOW MEAN THEY ARE TO ME" type response.
  • The charity campaign (to which I contributed in FunnyJunk's name) has currently raised over $180,000.00.
  • On Friday, Mr. Carreon decided to file suit in Federal Court against Matthew Inman, Indiegogo (the site hosting the charity drive), and...wait for it...The National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society.
Yeah. Basically, this flaming douchenozzle is suing two upstanding charities for having the temerity to be the beneficiaries of The Oatmeal's charity drive because...wait for it...the entire thing is embarrassing. 

Now there are bunch of people offering to work the case pro bono, and a ton more offering to help foot the bill for Mr. Carreon's lawsuit. As someone who occasionally writes snarky opinion pieces, and has been threatened with legal action as a result*, this kind of thing just pisses me off, and I want Mr. Carreon's lawsuit and douchebaggery to die in a fire. So I'll be contributing to the legal fund, as well. 

Seriously, for someone who purports to be an "expert" in Internet Law, he doesn't seem to have a very firm grasp on what happens here. I wonder if he's ever even heard of the Streisand Effect? Because his name is now becoming synonymous with "Internet Douchebag," and no amount of legal action is going to make that go away.

So the question becomes, is he an emotional infant, or just stupid?

___________
*Why, yes, I am still waiting for "The Internet Authorities" to come and take down my website. Man, those people move slow.

4 comments:

Stacey said...

I'm thinking the two aren't mutually exclusive.

Phiala said...

"lots of people assumed I was an Internet lawyer"

Obviously they were wrong.

Janiece said...

Yeah, well, now lots of people are assuming he's a childish douchenozzle. That's just how the world works sometimes.

Steve Buchheit said...

Yep, someone's about to get a schooling on the first amendment, the protection of parody, and the community of the internet. Hopefully it'll be at the hands of the judge and starts with the phrase, "And just why did you feel you needed to waste this court's time and your client's money…"