When is enough enough?

Evidently, enough is now finally enough.

For those who don't know what I am talking about, I am referring to the saga that is Charles Carreon and Matt Inman.

It all started about a year ago, when Matt Inman, owner of The Oatmeal discovered several of his comics were posted on the site Funnyjunk without his permission. He wrote a nasty blog post basically accusing them of being thieves.

Things went back and forth a bit, but then things settled down.

A year later, a lawyer, Charles Carreon, representing Funnyjunk sent The Oatmeal a, well, letter. Note that Inman has his own rebuttals in that letter.

Well, Inman did what he said he was going to do. He started his Bearlove campaign on Indiegogo.com, and quickly raised over 200,000 dollars to be donated to the World Wildlife Foundation and the American Cancer society.

But, no, Charles Carreon would not let that be. Instead, he went on a rampage, started litigation against Matt Inman and The Oatmeal. But it wasn't only that, also included in the lawsuit are Indiegogo.com, The World Wildlife Foundation, the American Cancer Society and Does (as yet unnamed defendants). Mr. Carreon, and his wife, continued to communicate with the public, which went to the defense on Inman.

Carreon and his wife basically accused the people defending Inman of being "Nazi Scumbags" and equated Inman to Hitler and the Antichrist.

Of course, they aren't completely in the wrong. Many of the things people did against Charles and his wife were wrong and terrible, and even Inman told his readers to stop harrassing them.

"Stop harassing Carreon. Be lawful and civil in your interactions with him."

 Of course, the Carreons would have none of that, and included cyberbullying and cybervandalism to the charges against Inman.

As tensions rose, and the popularity of the case grew, Carreon seemed to ignore common sense and continued, threatening to sue everyone who supported Inman. Charles Carreon's insistance on continuing, even after he had literally dug himself into a hole so deep his reputation may never climb out of it, has caused Techdirt's Mike Masnick to coin the term the "Carreon Effect". Which is when someone who has dug themselves into a hole (ie the "Streisand Effect"), to continuously keep digging themselves deeper and deeper.

Finally though, it appears that Charles Carreon saw the writing on the wall, and has dismissed the lawsuit, though he does have the option to re-file. Considering his past actions, it would not surprise me if he re-filed the suit. Still, for now it seems the hubbub has died down.