And what does he do about the 50 other content copiers.
Personally I think that the funnyjunk admin has demonstrated himself to be a big enough jerk that he deserves to be sued.
> why doesn't he become a member of funnyjunk and post his own stuff
> I know that if FunnyJunk disappeared, 50 other clones would pop up to take its place overnight..The effort required to filter out duplicates, locate correct attribution and links to the site holding the original content could be crowdsourced. Give users points of reputation for updating content with correct attribution and links, or adding something in the first place with the same or for adding genuinely original content, take away point when "original" content gets found as copied (this could be applied instantly if a user uploads something that is detected as a duplicate of an item already listed with correct attribution), and so forth.
Some meta-moderation (like slashdot) might be needed though, as well as a conflict resolution process that would need human intervention at some point, and some effort would need to go into creating and maintaining good relationships with the original content creators, so for from a complete walk in the park to do properly. Part of the "sell" to the original author like The Oatmeal could be providing a list of places where the same content is found with no attribution and back-links, keeping this site free of "bad" ads (adult and/or disturbing content, pop-ups/unders, irritating flash, or just too much advertising) and showing only thumbnails/segments with links to the full content on their site if they prefer.
If it wasn't for the fact I once again completely failed to win the lottery this week so still have to work to pay the mortgage, I'd be tempted to give such a project a go...
There is a difference between the minimum you tolerate and what you want to actively participate in. You're just suggesting that The Oatmeal drag himself down to their level.