This is a great story, of a web comic author whose work was stolen by another website, who didn’t credit him. He took it personally. He’s also won the Internet.

First off, a little context. The Oatmeal is an Internet comic that produces some pretty damn funny original content. Some of my favourites include The Bobcats, Why Printers Were Sent From Hell To Make Us Miserable, and his series of comics on grammar. The Oatmeal also doesn’t have any syndicated advertising, and derives all of its revenue from the sales of related items from its online store. All in all, it’s a very good natured website, spreading its joy and laughter across the Internet.

Then a feud broke out. Another website, called FunnyJunk, started stealing content from The Oatmeal, and displaying it on their own website, in a weird and possibly immoral business model. What made their actions worse, was that there was no attribution back to The Oatmeal, and the website’s address had been cropped out of every single post. So The Oatmeal wrote a blog post about it, calling them out on their way of doing business, essentially saying:

Here’s how FunnyJunk.com’s business operates:

1. Gather funny pictures from around the Internet
2. Host them on FunnyJunk.com
3. Slather them in advertising
4. If someone claims copyright infringement, throw your hands up in the air and exclaim “It was our users who uploaded your photos! We had nothing to do with it! We’re innocent!”
5. Cash six figure advertising checks from other artist’s stolen material

That’s when FunnyJunk.com’s lawyer sent them a letter of demand, claiming $20 000 in damages. The Oatmeal said, quite simply, fuck you, and decided to take a different approach. Instead of paying a douchebag $20k, he decided to raise the same amount in donations, and split the money between the National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society. He called it BearLove Good, Cancer Bad.

He raised $211 223,04. Not bad at all. He then decided to rub it in FunnyJunk’s face, arranging the money into messages and taking photos. Those then all got mailed to the lawyers. Along with a picture of FunnyJunk’s mom seducing a bear. See all the pics in the gallery below.

Now I know what I’m doing in this post is a little similar to what I’ve just written, so here’s my disclaimer: Go and support The Oatmeal. It’s a great site that will make your life better.

Philanthropy > Douchebaggery.

[Source: The Oatmeal]