The Oatmeal’s Viral Lawsuit Fundraiser Surpasses $120,000

The battle of copyright infringement between FunnyJunk and the Oatmeal has turned a potential lawsuit into a philanthropic campaign that's raised more than $120,000 in less than 24 hours.

The fundraiser sparked from a public dispute that started almost a year ago. Matthew Inman, Oatmeal comic artist, publicly complained on his blog about FunnyJunk and other image hosting sites that allow uncredited ad-serving images of his work.

"It's kind of a new business model where you just collect images from the Internet, submitted to a blog by users or you, then make a living from the ad revenue," Inman said. "None of the work on there belongs to them."

FunnyJunk responded by sending Inman a public serving on Monday, demanding $20,000 for public defamation and malicious practice of SEO. According to Inman, there has been no interaction between the two sites since last year.

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Instead of mailing the $20,000 to FunnyJunk's CEO, he elaborately planned a fundraiser that's proceeds would distribute evenly between the National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society.

Inman then planned to send a photo of the money (in cash) with a drawing of his "mom seducing a kodiak bear."

Unexpectedly, "Operation: Bearlove Good. Cancer Bad," raised the $20,000 in 10 minutes — it has since raised more than $120,000 and is still increasing by the hour.

The goal for Inman was to get FunnyJunk to drop the lawsuit, and "go away." The idea to raise money for a good cause came after the fact. However, the campaign has been so successful that Inman is considering splitting the proceeds between four charities instead of just the two.

FunnyJunk has not responded to Inman or spoken publicly about the campaign. The CEO's name and identity is undisclosed, however Inman has been in contact with FunnyJunk's attorney, Charles Carreon.

According to Inman, Carreon has not responded to the campaign, however he has addressed angry fans on Twitter.

@J_Low Joey signed my jacket and smiled at me, genuis.

— charlescarreon (@charlescarreon) June 12, 2012

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Inman illustrates tweets from various Twitter accounts, and has made profile pictures for fans who donate to the campaign.

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One of the things Inman's known for with his comics is depicting what people are often thinking, but maybe not saying out loud.

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We've all been there.

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Images courtesy of The Oatmeal