Righthaven copyright troll gets hammered in court...

[Werehawk]

It looks like copyright lawsuit troll Righthaven is going to have to explain within two weeks as to why it shouldn't be sanctioned by the court for it's lawsuits. They just lost their case against democratic underground big time. And it looks like their 200 odd lawsuits are going have issues.
News article:
http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2011/jun/1 ... -threaten/
Federal judgement:
http://media.lasvegassun.com/media/pdfs ... 142011.pdf
--Werehawk--
My mom's brief take on upcoming Guatemalan Elections "In last throes of preelection activities. Much loudspeaker vote pleading."

[Dartz]

Trolls like this harm business and innovation, rather than protect it and clog up the legal system. Good to see them getting rightfully squished. The only people who win in most copyright and patent cases are the lawyers.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

[ECSNorway]

Much as I might like to see the Democrappy Underpants taken for a ride, I'm quite pleased to see Righthaven get shot down.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Black Aeronaut]

*scratches head, wondering who these people are.*

Huh. Well, maybe they are every bit as sensationalist as Fox News... but then I don't always fully write-off everything that is said on Fox News. Just like I don't fully write-off Al Gore and his thoughts on global warming.

[Logan Darklighter]

To all of the above: I must admit being totally blindsided by this one. I didn't ever hear of these people either. 

Could someone give me a short paragraph thumbnail of the situation? I feel like I came in on the last 15 minutes of the movie.

[LynnInDenver]

They were basically granted a "sue only" license to copyrighted works from two news publications, and attempted to use it. The judge basically told them that such a license was insufficient for the sake of copyright enforcement, since it was so narrowly tailored.

In other words, a publisher tried to basically write a 'letter of marquis' to a law firm to enable them to go after infringers independently, in exchange for them keeping the "winnings". They got caught out when they went after Democrat Underground, and the site fought back, over a properly attributed and linked excerpt from an article. And the EFF joined in.
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor

[Sweno]

as far as I understand the situation (and my understanding is not perfect), it is as follows:
Newspapers are unhappy because of declining readership (and the vast discrepancy in print/online add revenue). They want to drive more viewers to their sites.

They get approached by Righthaven who says "hey, there are all these people out there who are reprinting (parts of) your articles. Give us some rights, and we'll split the profits from suing them with you."

A few newspapers (they either didn't have the time to look into who was being targeted, didn't care who would be targeted, or didn't understand the legality) said 'Sure!'

Righthaven then attempted to sue (jumping directly to court, not even sending a lawyery-nastygram or DMCA takedown request).

They made several blunders (these are not all of them, just the ones I remember)
* asking for the entire domain be assigned to them (boggle)
* going after the sources quoted in the articles link
* suing authors who wrote about them link (The author used a picture that appeared in the article from the court filling, which are by definition public record)
* having no grasp of fair use

Basically they were the worst kind of bad actor, and deserve to be disbarred for what they have done.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

[LynnInDenver]

I was actually annoyed to find out that the Denver Post has dirtied their hands here.

Such a pity I don't have a subscription to it.

Oh, and asking for domain names to be forked over appears to be becoming a standard "request" in copyright suits, in part to help force settlements. While domain names are "cheap", there can be a lot of investment in them in terms of a website, and in some cases, losing the well-known name can be a death-knell.
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor

[Werehawk]

An update...

Righthaven has lost a different federal case as well. On fair use grounds at that see below...

http://www.techdirt.com/a...wo-previous-issues.shtml

And is being investigated by the Nevada Bar for champerty and barratry that is the improper incitement and prosecution of lawsuits by parties with no real interest in the outcome – and that hope to profit by these...

See here:

http://www.vegasinc.com/n...rievances-against-right/
--Werehawk--
My mom's brief take on upcoming Guatemalan Elections "In last throes of preelection activities. Much loudspeaker vote pleading."