Weekly Wide Web

The Internet v. Charles Carreon

The relationship between intellectual-property laws and stuff posted online is obviously still a little tenuous—and local attorney Charles Carreon stepped into a world of scorn by demanding money from a popular webcomic, The Oatmeal, on behalf of his client, place-where-you-can-post-stuff Funnyjunk.com.

Matthew Inman, the creator of The Oatmeal, has made no secret of his disdain for Funnyjunk, which has hosted a number of Inman's creations—removing any credit and providing no attribution or income to Inman. Inman wrote a blog post criticizing FunnyJunk's business model and asking his audience whether he should bother sending the site a cease-and-desist order for "practically (stealing) my entire website"—and then Carreon jumped in.

On behalf of Funnyjunk, Carreon sent a letter threatening a lawsuit if Inman didn't remove "false statements" about his client, and demanding a check for $20,000. This didn't go over well with Inman, who posted a giant list of links to FunnyJunk's acts of copyright infringement; a drawing of a Kodiak bear "seducing" FunnyJunk's metaphorical "mom"; and information about a fundraiser for the National Wildlife Federation and the American Cancer Society. The Oatmeal's readers raised $20,000 for the charities in 64 minutes (and a number approaching $200,000 as of this writing), but Carreon wasn't done, filing suit in California against the Oatmeal, the site Inman used to raise the money, and the two charities.

I generally like to cheer for Tucsonans, but in this case, I'm going to side with The Oatmeal instead of a guy suing the American Cancer Society.


The week on The Range

We covered Election Night, including the mariachis at the Ron Barber party and dashed hopes for a Grandpa Hank sighting at Jesse Kelly's more-somber affair; wondered how much the fame of Calexico helped Barber; followed reactions to Obama's immigration-policy move; wished the best to Jesse Kelly in his seemingly post-political life; tried to figure out exactly who was voting for Charlie Manolakis; shared Frank Antenori's angry tweets regarding the changes to the Rio Nuevo board; and discussed the highlights of the week's political events with Raúl Grijalva, Pete Hershberger, Trent Humphries and Jeff Rogers on Arizona Illustrated's Political Roundtable, with your host, Jim Nintzel.

We shared photos from Club Congress' underwear party and previewed Kitty Katt McKinley's upcoming Yacht Rock event; watched a video showing the construction of the Temple of Music and Art; went to the Weiner's Circle with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog; shared a few local Kickstarter campaigns; watched Usher cover Foster the People for British radio; celebrated a very special television anniversary; ate some interesting berries; wondered why we care about mugshots; tried to assess which Fourth Avenue eatery has the best burger; rode to North Haverbrook on a monorail; suggested that you get your tickets to Beach House's show at the Rialto; argued in the comment section of a post about Maureen Dowd; preordered a Playful Puppies Bible; added some albums to our "to-buy" list thanks to Howe Gelb; shared a new style blog from a contributor to The Range, Mike McKisson; grimaced at the layoffs at New Orleans' Times-Picayune; headed east to Civano for some food-truck action; listened to the new Tallest Man on Earth album (he isn't, by the way); and jammed to some summertime-themed musical gems.


Comment of the week

"There are thousands of people who live on the east side. Isn't it amazing?"

TucsonWeekly.com commenter "Hungry in Vail" represents those living on the other side of whatever street we're saying defines the eastside these days ("The Food Truck Pod at Civano Nursery," The Range, June 12).


Best of WWW

We haven't fully rolled it out yet, but if you head to our website's Music section, you'll find we're now offering music fans the opportunity to look through the shows coming to town, listen to music by the bands (even the obscure ones), and even buy tickets, thereby avoiding the embarrassment of explaining to your date why you didn't get a pair to see his/her favorite band before the show sold out. This project is still in beta mode, and this information will eventually be further integrated into our music content, but there's already a lot to look at and listen to. Check it out, and let us know what you think.