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
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"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
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