GMacGuffin's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week

Techdirt

from the keep-calm-and-carreon dept

Could there have been a better week to get to write about my favorite Techdirt posts? (Still thinking … er, No.) What with last week’s public meltdown of well-known attorney Charles Carreon spilling over into Lunes (Loony Monday), Techdirt opened this week with a blurb that Carreon had indeed filed a Fresh & Loony lawsuit — currently serving as a poster child for Wrath of the Spurned.

If you didn’t know, we have Carreon suing cartoonist Inman/The Oatmeal because Inman didn’t dig Carreon demanding $20k from him for alleged defamation of Funnyjunk. (This started off because Inman didn’t appreciate Funnyjunk users posting Inman’s comics there without attribution or linkback, and being rather in-your-face about it, Inman wrote an open letter of complaint, containing previously mentioned alleged defamation.) So rather than pay Funnyjunk, Inman instead starts a charity fundraiser — including some pretty crude Funnyjunk mom-bashing — which goes gangbusters, and then Carreon takes it all super personally (including the mom bashing [?]). Carreon tries to shut down the fundraiser, and goes kinda gonzo in the press; and so Papa Internet (and Mama Internet and all the little nets) go kinda gonzo on Carreon, and he blames Inman, and sues him … and the charities … kind of. It’s a spectacular mess.

So later Monday morning we get: Carreon’s Full Filing Reveals He Donated To Oatmeal Campaign Himself, Plus Other Assorted Nuttiness; and what a read!. Quick procedural problems include: Carreon donated to Inman’s charity in an attempt to create standing for himself to bring the case re the charities (Red Flag!); he names the two charities in the header, but doesn’t direct any of the claims toward them (Danger Will Robinson!); and he otherwise clearly demonstrates his lack of understanding of all things Internet. Well, you’re stuck here now. (Open the pod bay door, Hal. / I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.)

There’s a whole lotta other crazy in there as well that’s totally worth reading. I will add that the charities’ likely 12(b)(6) motion for failure to state a claim will be the first that I’ve ever seen where the failure to state a claim involves actual failure to make a claim against a party, at all.

Then we have Inman getting a (much less vitriolic than before) word in with an open letter addressed to Carreon, where he urges Carreon to calm down, and stop saying crazy shit to journalists. I gotta say, “Don’t say crazy shit to journalists” is pretty much all-around good advice; this week’s mantra.

But Wait … There’s More! Now it’s off to subpoena the identity of the Twitter user who set up the Carreon parody account then stopped trying to parody when he couldn’t top the real thing. And there’s the amazing Tara Carreon, about which I have to defer to an AC comment from last Friday to describe: If it’s a troll, it’s like no trolling I’ve ever tasted.”

The whole situation is freaking mind boggling, and so puerile it’s irresistible. And while wildly entertaining, it’s also terribly ugly and it’s sad, and I truly wish Carreon had not taken this path. If he hasn’t already, he’s going to wind up jackin’ it in San Diego, metaphorically speaking.

Let’s Talk About Disruption (and the like): I’m an urban guy. Lived smack dab in the city for decades. When we can, we buy local. These are our merchants, our neighbors. If we support them, it benefits my urban community, and therefore me. More broadly, we try to buy direct when possible, and generally trying to ensure that the people who are actually doing the work (creating, cooking, whatever) get the highest percent of our cash as possible. So even at just-about-middle-age, when I should be averse to change, that philosophy leaves me absolutely loving watching the destruction of the old world for the new, from Kickstarter and crowdfunding in general, to all those other new, disruptive businesses that wreak so much havoc.

So along these themes we have a nice discussion of the chaos of disruptive innovation, and how the old guard just can’t deal, man.

I’m currently funding, like, four Kickstarter projects, meaning, I’m giving somebody money to make something cool stuff for the world — specifically, me. (Seriously: A baseball horror graphic novel. Monsters and baseball!) So this week I’ll point to some more Kickstarter changeup stories — showing how a platform can be harnessed in ways likely its own creators didn’t imagine. First, there’s the Fat Kid Rules The World film project, another film project… except you or I could set up a showing and keep some of the dough. Groovy. And there’s this so-obvious-it’s-brilliant idea of using crowdfunding for <a href=https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120619/02450719377/seth-godin-uses-kickstarter-to-test-market-his-next-book-results-are-good.shtml”>Empirical Market Research. Author Seth Godin and a publisher ran a campaign to gauge the interest in an upcoming book. Answer: If you write it, they will come.

[Happy Camper Joke Here] On a personal note, I want to mention David Lowery, of Camper Van Beethoven, who appears in these pages periodically saying … well, I’m never sure. I think it has to do with the old days being better — back in happy GatekeeperLand, or something. I’m pretty sure it’s a bitch about how hard it is to make money now. Anyway, Mr. Lowery, I recently bought several Camper albums (on CD even!) to replace the cassettes wanting for tape deck. Which albums did I buy? The first three. The independent label albums, because the major label albums sucked in comparison. Have a nice day.

Finally, my wife loves your comments, folks. Have a good weekend. I’m watching baseball.