The Oatmeal Fights Back a Lawsuit Threat with Operation BearLove Good. Cancer Bad.

A drawing of FunnyJunk’s mother seducing a Kodiak bear by The Oatmeal’s Matthew Inman

Cartoonist Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal recently received a federal lawsuit threat (full letter) from FunnyJunk, a site that has repeatedly reposted Inman’s artwork without permission or attribution. They asked for $20,000 in damages. In response, Inman started a fundraising campaign on IndieGoGo titled BearLove Good. Cancer Bad. where he set out to raise $20,000 to donate to the National Wildlife Federation “for the bears” and the American Cancer Society “because cancer is shitty”. As of this writing, he has raised over $150,000 to split among the two charities.

His bigger plan was to not only raise the money but then to take a picture of it and send that picture to the owner of FunnyJunk along with a drawing that shows his mother “seducing a Kodiak bear”. FunnyJunk has since removed the stolen material but, according to Digital Life on Today, they are now trying to shutdown the fundraising campaign saying it violates IndieGoGo’s terms of service. Currently, donations to the campaign are still being accepted at IndieGoGo.