If drawing and distributing a picture of someone in a negative fashion were a punishable offense, every political cartoonist in America would have been put on the chopping block long ago.
Sounds very black & white, doesn't it? The thing is, it doesn't matter. The actual determination of whether or not you've broken the law occurs very late in civil proceedings. A judge doesn't rule on whether or not you've broken the law, a jury does. The judge can only rule that the claim made against you does or doesn't past certain "tests". I can assure you that if a lawyer digs deep enough, he will find some circumstance under which these tests will pass and you will end up sued.
Oddly enough, Carreon is not suing over the picture itself--he is not suing for libel (i.e., a published defamation) or intentional infliction of emotional distress. He is merely claiming that the picture is a motivating factor in suing the Oatmeal guy.
Of course, Carreon is representing himself in the matter, and we all know what they say about a lawyer who has himself for a client...
Actually, I've never heard the saying about a lawyer being his own client so I'm somewhat curious. Is it like a Jack Thompson (not sure I spelled the Thompson right) thing?
If drawing and distributing a picture of someone in a negative fashion were a punishable offense, every political cartoonist in America would have been put on the chopping block long ago.