* FJ is a site that's been around for years and has had a steady falloff of users and who's popularity has been waning since 2006. This looks to me like an act of desperation, not a brilliant gorilla marketing tactic.

* Threatening a lawsuit against The Oatmeal, who in turn responds with charity and humor does not make FJ seem cool.

* DDG is obviously returning some pretty bad relevance, considering a search for "the oatmeal" on Google doesn't return a single reference to FJ except in the News section talking about what huge dicks they are. This is not positive SEO. Also, when I search DDG in an empty session, I only get 2/6, not 4/6, so either they've already fixed this oversight or you're getting some unique results because of your history.

* FJ does not get DMCA protections. As pointed out in the above letter, they don't have a DMCA agent on file, which means that even though Inman isn't going to go after them, as a result of this bogus legal threat against him, they've just painted a big bullseye on themselves. Anyone who feels like they want to pile on and get some free money out of FJ can now point to their works being online and sue. Someone less courteous could extract up to $150,000 per infringement, especially since there is clearly commercial intent behind this "unauthorized sharing".

I hate to say it, but you've completely read this situation wrong, and if anything, The Oatmeal has come out with vastly more positive press from this than FJ ever will.