Fleen: The Awkward Christmas Dinner Of Our Obligation To Existence

Submitted Without Comment

Edit to add: From some of the comments below, it appears that I was not sufficiently clear. Mr Felix does represent Todd Goldman. The communication cited is legitimate.

Slightly more than 24 hours ago, the “authors” email (the one at the Contact Us link up there to the right) received the following:

from Andrew.P.Felix@[redacted]
to authors
date Apr 19, 2007 6:10 PM
subject Todd Goldman

Andrew P. Felix, Esq. wrote:
Dear Sir or Madam:

This firm represents Mr. Todd Goldman. I write on behalf of Mr. Goldman regarding certain comments and disparaging remarks that are posted and housed on your website (www.fleen.com).

We have acquired articles posted on your website which contain defaming, derogatory and malicious statements about Mr. Goldman. Therefore, we request that you immediately remove these article from your website, as well as any subsequent articles and/or URL links of this nature regarding Mr. Goldman. Further, the hosting of such statements and/or URL links about Mr. Goldman is actionable defamation and libel that has caused irreversible damage to his character.

Unless we receive written assurance that you have removed these article, as well as any subsequent articles and/or URL links of this nature regarding Mr. Goldman, from your website by the close of business on Friday, April 20, 2007, we will have no other alternative but to take action to seek injunctive and monetary relief against you pursuant to Florida law. Please be advised that we will also seek to recover attorneysâ€™ fees and costs associated with this matter. As time is of the essence, this action must be taken immediately.

This letter is not, nor should it be construed to be, a waiver of any rights or remedies available to Mr. Goldman under federal or state law, whether now existing or hereafter accruing.

PLEASE GOVERN YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY.

Sincerely,
SHUTTS & BOWEN LLP

/s/Andrew P. Felix

We at Fleen have consulted with attorneys, and they are in contact with Mr Felix to determine specifics as to what material Goldman objects to. We also understand that other websites that have hosted material regarding the Kelly/Goldman affair have received similar letters.

More information as the situation warrants.

Has anyone considered a boycott of Goldman, his company, and any company that buys his products? A letter writing campaign by concerned consumers to companies that buy Goldman products could go a long way towards making a statement that plagrism is not acceptable.

[…] Reading penny arcade the other day lead me to this fleen post regarding a douche who wants to sue the past away. I vaguely remember their initial posts about his plagiarism, but I guess this guy and Jack can be frivolous lawsuit buddies. […]

Boycott this tool. For the REAL artists and wits.

And don’t give in to his blood sucking lawyers!

Hey, what do you know – TODDGOLDMANISATHIEF.COM is available.

[…] Since this has blown up on the Internet, Goldman’s lawyer has been e-mailing bloggers who are discussing this issue–”We have acquired articles posted on your website which contain defaming, derogatory and malicious statements about Mr. Goldman“–asking them to remove posts from their blogs. But now it looks like his lawyer is apologizing at least to the artists for the rip-offs. […]

[…] I’m sure you’ve seen his shirts. You can find them at Hot Topic. No I don’t mean the cute rabbit with the filthy sayings, that’s created by Jim Benton. No no not throw back retro tv and movies shirts, those are licensed by legitmate companies from the people that own the rights. Todd Goldman is the guy who makes all the dumb Â ”David and Goliath” brand t-shirts. Through the power of the interweb, it’s become apparent that Todd has quite a plagariser. Here’s a recent blog about his theivery. Â Here is another site dedicated to his theft. Goldman has even made the news of Penny Arcade who are showing quite a number of stolen designs by the “artist”. Goldman has started retaliating by sending cease and desist threats to websites who point out his theft. Juztapoz Magazine and Wikipedia both removed posts aboutÂ GoldmanÂ afterÂ receivingÂ emailsÂ fromÂ hisÂ legalÂ team. […]

Hmm… I just had a test on this type of thing last week. For it to be libel it has to be false and, these ar the actual words here, printed with ACTUAL MALICE, meaning that you hav to know, not think but know that the accusations are false.

Hi,
Actually people, problem here is this:
Todd may be a dick and he may tell something that is not truth but the legal system does not have a machine to identify truth. You really need a lot of money, time and wiling to spend it all on a lawsuit to fight and maby win it.
Remmember that you cant sue Todd for being a douchebag. The case he tries to solve with his lawyers is not about acts of plagiatirism or anything that was in the spothlight not long ago. So its not very smart to go red hot angry and writing 200 comments about how he will lose for sure and how he is wrong for sure. The legal system is a very complex and detailed one and you cant simply tell that all the articles about todd will lose 100% in cour or win. It all depends on details in the articles itselve.
As a photographer and a musician ofcourse i hate plagiatirism as such but for fucking sake get it people that it happens everyday and you wont win against someone in court just becouse he copied something.
Also the power of the internet is really very small power, power consisting of 13 yeer olds mostly and people who can manage only to write “i dont know much about stuff but i think that this is wrong”.
Also mirroring articles about todd being a dick wont help the case. Nobody really cares about todd being a dick or whatever. You even dont care, fearsefull commenters becouse the case got silent in a matter of days.
So to be honest i think that the power of the internet is bulshit and you wont help in anyway anybody who might got damaged by goldmans actions.
Want to help? So maby everyone of you send 10 bucks to flee so that they can get an attorney and another 100 to make it up for the time they will lose on the subject.

This is why goldman laughts looking at the internet, he does not fucking care about blog posts or houndred of comments with nothing more than “i support you” kind of stuff. The webcomic readership is not big and when you exclude people who are actually interested in the comic itself and not some interindustrial shit you are left over with people that have too much time on ther hands, kids, people who just are interested in hot stories or just want to comment on something they dont like.

Anyway i really think flees best idea was to get the article offline. As they told they dint lose much becouse it was just a news article, and those get outdated very very fast and are not viewed anymore anyway.

If they would try to fight with goldman i bet that all of you supporting fans would not give a shit about what happens to flee or would not help in any real way.

Spreading the word is really a lausy help. Its like sayin “hey i like, saw this guy? he was being beaten to death with stick by those guys, i saw them, like i dint help him but ill tell everybody, they will know who beated him, fell the power of the internets”

Want to change something?
Get your lasy but off your chair and into the real world and then try doing something usfull.

Aw and in my post i made a mistake and was talking about fleen removing stuff.
I wanted to write Juztapoz Magazine but somehow fucked the sentence.

In my oh so humble opinion, Goldman is nothing more than a pathetic douchebag who has to resort to legal douchebaggery in a vain attempt to prevent people from discussing how much of a douchebag he is. However, in doing so, he is only bringing to attention how much of a douchebag he truly is, and thereby defeating his own purpose. Get angry, take a few deep breaths, then get over it. If you want to do something about it, and I believe it has been mentioned before, boycott anything and everything he has ever, or ever will, produce. Along with that, spread the word. There really isn’t much else you can do, and you can’t blame the websites for taking down the articles. At least until this whole thing has blown over, which it inevitably will. Then it should be posted again, just to piss him off. XD

“The webcomic readership is not big”

Excuse me? One web comic, Dreamland Chronicles, all by itself has over one million readers.

xanthian@well.com

Imagine a comic strip, featuring Jack Thompson and Todd Goldman, our favorite friends, but as their super hero counterparts, “Melodrama Man and Plagiarist boy.” Just a thought. As to Borys Pomianek, your entire post is just silly, because it’s a load of crap. A- the webcomic readership is bloody huge, just like Kent said, and a lot of people do a strange thing called standing up for their ideals. Goldman may just want press coverage, and he’s certainly getting it, but just ignoring him and getting my “lasy but” off my chair and into the real world and then “doing something usfull,” ain’t gonna help. know why? Because a lot of people like ourselves use the internet as a medium to do what we can. By the way, Plagiarist Boy, if you can’t spell better than that, and can’t think of a more inventive name, or write something more intelligent, maybe you should just go eat the heart of a puppy, or some other of your normal activities.

What the FUCK was that about “BIRCH”?

I cant spell better you idiot becouse iam foreign to english. Try spelling right in my language and then well talk.

Also who the FUCK (yes i did repeat my self, sory) are you to call me a plagiarist boy? To what was that related?

Theres nothing silly about my post. It just my observation of the “powerfull” internet “community”.

If you dont get my post then re read it. You dont stand up for your ideals. Your just an idiot who posts. did you even ever create any art work? Since when protecting copyrighted work has become your ideal? Like, yesterday maby?

Now i do create copyrighted work but becouse i also do so instead of just being a consumer of it like propably you i also understand that to stand up and defend something you have to do MORE than just post some trash in the comments of a blog.

Also kind of Borys is my name and Pomianek is my surname. I dint think it up you idiot becouse i dont have to hide naming my self “birch”.

Anyway did you even get half of my post right? yeah you did, sory, you did just read out from it something like “comic fans suck” and that was not my messege.
You actually missed the part that i support the cause and maby dint got that i criticize the suportive mas that also “supports” that way.

I just call posting in comments not supporting but outputing your need to fell like you helpd a good couse.

Being a user of the net, part of the webcomics readership and with artistic education i find tods plagiatirism frustrating BUT iam not such an idiot to declare a “war on plagiatirism” using the all might “blog”.

Anyway my whole point is that “spreading the word” is worth nothing on the net. It does not reach outside the medium.
Yeah you might make todd a symbol of plagiarism but that symbol would be valid only to the small group of people who actually care about such stuff and those that do so on the net.

Also my point to make it maby more clear was that to do something about it you have to take some real action. Not just post on the net. If you want to fight using art then do so, thats usfull.
But to fight using blogs is the most stupid idea ever to have.

I did think that for instance pvponline.com strip about the case was usfull. It had value as an art piece that was commenting on something.

A comment on a blog thou is worth nothing and especially if you lower yourself to thinking that everybody who tries to criticize your “holy” couse is somehow a secret agent of todd.

Anyway just look at what iam trying to show you. Do you really think that a group of people who fights only for what is the hotest topic on *insert blog here* and do so using ever changing nicknames by writing comments like “todd is ugly” can help anything?

Cant you see that you cant harm him that way? That it only helps him make himself a victim of the stupid croud? Dont you get that there are some serious people out there that will ignore the case just becouse it was blown out of proportion by a group of internet fanatics?

Ok reply to “kent”: Sure man, in mere numbers the readership is not so small but still milion is a lausy redership for a free, internationally accesible medium. Its not like it is geting printed in milion copies. The big guys to get good money for theyr work and has quite the readership but the output
And most of them as i said are random people or people who dont have big amount of money that they can use to support any couse or cant vote yet even.

Now the amount of adults that are not working in mcdolands is guite big i am sure but webcomics is not really the last stronghold of the intelectuall.
Its just simple, plain etertainment. Its just comics people.

Trying to fight with something as serious as plagiatirism with blog comments is like fighting with the war in iraq using spiderman comics.

[…] So does this result in a win for confessed plagiarist Todd Goldman? Oh, heavens no. Several websites that have been threatened are refusing to back down, and others are joining the fray. I forget which online personality it was who noted that the Internet treats censorship as damage and routes around it, but whoever it was could certainly have been describing the Goldman meme. The latest to shine a spotlight upon Goldman’s theft of Dave Kelly’s cartoon — and quite possibly many others besides — include The Consumerist’s Lauren Kitsune and Cartoon Brew’s Amid Amidi. Meanwhile, LiveJournal blogger Sirive has started a little meme (see above), which has in turn spread far and wide. […]

Freedom of speech does not cover things like defamation, slander and libel.

otherwise it’s pretty useful.

Isn’t Todd Goldmann same guy who stole this art work?

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2416213

fuck em, they wanna play hardball….
just keep it up, and add more… the bastard’s digging his own hole, may as well hand him a shovel.

You know, energized posts like this do often cause people to get up off their ‘lazy butts’ and do something. Honestly sir.. if you would tone down your hostility Mr Pomianek, you do make some good points.. Reading the webcomics may not put more money in the artist’s pockets.. .but you are wrong as far as this not getting out of anywhere except the internet. It may not make it to lawyer, courtrooms or politicans per se, but it does get to the target audience of the afore mentioned alleged… see that lawyers,, I said alleged plagerist. That is why he is worried, because enough of this negative publicity will impact what is important.. his bottom line. Reason behind that is, sure teenagers are rebellious, but… they wouldn’t support someone whom is harming that which they hold important to them. So, while this post may not send millions of dollars into these hardworking artists pockets.. but it will hopefully keep the ALLEGED plagerist from getting rich off someone else’s hardwork either, and as an artist, I would expect you to respect that…

Have a great evening.

Sure your point Patrick is good but in practice people will still buy Goldmans shirts becouse they simply want a shirt.
Iam just talking out of experience.
People want a product. Ofcourse 1000 may not buy his shirt but the other 10000 will . And yes that will maby “punish” him but then again it wont add to the harmed peoples pockets. Pockets that have to be full to fight a lawsuit.

Spreading the word is ok but what i criticize is people who post ideas like “spread the word” and post in comments reapeating after everybody that someone is a douchebah.

Saying that something is wrong when you think so is ok with me, it helps to fight stuff but usually when there is also somekind of force that fights it.

I may sound histile becouse i want to maby move some people who just pose stuff without thinking to actually think what they want. Do they want to help or just brag about?

Becouse of my experience with “the audience” i actually lack some respect for the repeating themselves fighting from theyr chairs kind of audience.
I know it may sound harsh but i know a lot of people who just say that something is cool and most of them dont buy it.

Sure that is supporting but what we lack is not people who say that something is good and they support it, we lack people who actually support. Like monetary, with theyr time, knowledge, whatever.

Its harsh but that is how i see it.

[…] Now it appears Goldman has decided to stop the nasty name-calling and sic his lawyers on anyone who dares talk about him or his high-quality, certainly-not-stolen designs. Already a number of Web sites have reportedly received â€œcease and desistâ€? letters (you can read Fleenâ€™s here) and a few sites have taken down their articles about the affair, including Wired, Juxtapoz and The Beat. Without casting any aspersions on Heidi or Publisherâ€™s Weekly, I find it very disturbing when someone accused of stealing feels they can bully their way out of trouble. […]

I’m reminded of a back-and-forth between Charles Barkley and Tonya Harding in the mid-1990s. Harding called herself “The Charles Barkley of figure skating”, and Sir Charles came back with “At first I wanted to sue her for defamation of character. Then I remembered I don’t have any character.”

[…] We are still waiting on the promised update from Dave Kelly on the Todd Goldman happenings, but one would be remiss not to note that it’s been eleven (11) days since we received our C&D, ten (10) days since our lawyer asked for details as to what content was annoying to Mr Goldman, with zero (0) specifics yet received. […]

yo Borys,

when you say stuff like:

“You dont stand up for your ideals. Your just an idiot who posts. did you even ever create any art work? Since when protecting copyrighted work has become your ideal? Like, yesterday maby?”

It proves that you don’t get it. This person is not an idiot. S/he is a person of IDEALS. Something you can’t seem to identify.

This is not just about copyright. This is about *STEALING*

Most people think STEALING is WRONG. That is an “IDEAL”. Most regular people have have this “IDEAL”. This person you criticize is standing up for this “IDEAL”. S/he is not an idiot. It is you who is acting irrational. Since when was “STEALING” ever okay?

Todd Goldman clearly was STEALING designs and ideas. Exposing such wrong-doing is what responsible people do. Why? Because STEALING is wrong.

The comments you made about the internet and the people who use it are so ridiculous I have to wonder just how old you are. I guess you are one of those “13 year olds mostly” and that explains why you are here?

You are like one of those “denialist”s. Your comments about the internet are so contradictory to what is happening in the real world that I feel sorry for you. The world is changing. I hope it changes so that there is less stealing in our world.

And btw, what language is it that you are most comfortable in? Go ahead and post in a language that you prefer. I’m sure there is a willing person somewhere on the internet generous enough to help translate your arguments for the rest of us (so we can all laugh together!). Wow, translation in hours or minutes? For free? Just a tiny example of how powerful the Internet is. I heard about this from reading a blog unrelated to comics. How did you find out?

Many people have already started doing something about this so don’t you worry. XD

Join the laughter at Todd Goldman as we await an update!

Borys Pomianek your wrong on many counts
1 captialism moves the world so consumers who you mocked due have a lot of power. How? Writing to people that cary his products to complain ie hot topic. If enough people complain it can motivate the company to drop todd’s work (if felt slimy saying todd’s work).
2your remarks about fandom show just how litlle you understand it. I found out about this issue from a online comic and got more info from the web family. One thing about fandom we like to complain which also means word of mouth. Now word of mouth advertising is very important as any retail store and customer service provider could tell you. Mabey because you are from another country you dont understand the concepts but once this hits todd’s wallet he will
3 if you really thing fandom is so weak (and the webcomic comunity is part of that this issue was brought up at a manga convetion) then you are ….lets say gravely mistaken. lets look at what fandom has out
spiderman 3
harry potter 5
ff 3
transfromers
we are a powerfull consumer force that society is paying attention too. now i do agree that just posting is not enough but it is a start. continual posting helps fan the fire, and other can be inspired to do more.

so i encourage every one here to write to hot topic and let them know you will not shop there as long as they carry “his” products.

Your site is perfect!

[…] And finally, as it’s now been officially a month since we were threatened with a lawsuit (or, more precisely, a month since we asked exactly what was actionable in our coverage of the Dave Kelly/Todd Goldman story … that chirping of crickets you hear is all the reply we’ve gotten), we at Fleen are now forced to conclude that Goldman’s lawyer believes there never was anything defamatory in our writing. […]

Yeah, the whole freedom of speech in America is a common misconception. It’s more like, say anything you want, as long as it doesn’t offend anyone. If it does, then we’ll do the American thing and sue your sorry ass. Right here buddy… m|n[._.]n|m

[…] taken me to task when we’ve disagreed, you’ve rallied about when I was warned to Govern Myself Accordingly. If nothing else, I hope you’ve found it true that the comments are open to all and sundry, […]

[…] that’s more than any of the Wikipedia Purge stories, more than the time we were asked to govern ourselves accordingly, more than twice as many as the first big collective poo-fling we had here, near as I can tell the […]

[…] to that last statement, actually. At the height of the Todd Goldman Shitstorm of Aught-Seven, with lawsuit threats a-flying, one poster contacted me with a request that a comment be deleted because he’d submitted it […]

[…] time to govern myself accordingly, since the last time Mr Goldman was reported on in these pages, it took a month to clear up his […]

[…] is a mirror of a site that reported on a prior iteration of art thievery (some four years back) and received a lawyerly communication as a result. Curiously, in conjunction with yet another accusation of Todd Goldman lifting Jess Fink’s […]

[…] quite a number of stolen designs by the “artist”. Goldman has started retaliating by sending cease and desist threats to websites who point out his theft. Juztapoz Magazine and Wikipedia both removed posts about […]

[…] If there’s one thing we at Fleen do, it’s engage in various actions accordingly. […]

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