Items tagged with Righthaven
Righthaven's dream of corporate enrichment via frivolous lawsuits is in tatters, and the company's erstwhile partners are abandoning ship. The new CEO of MediaNews Group, John Paton, announced this week that its partnership with Righthaven would expire at the end of the month and that the company has no plans to renew it. “The issues about copyright are real,” Paton told Wired.com in a telephone interview. “But the idea that you would hire someone on an — essentially — success fee to run around and sue people at will who may or may not have infringed as a way of protecting yourself … does not reflect how news is created and disseminated in the modern world....
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Copyright troll firm Righthaven is bidding fair to replace TV reruns as a source of summer entertainment. Since the company's case against Digital Underground was tossed in mid-June, the firm's lawyers have turned to increasingly amusing court filings in an attempt to justify their own legal fees. This week scarcely disappoints. Judge Roger Hunt blasted Righthaven earlier this week for failing to explain its previous deceit and unacceptable conduct in the Digital Underground case and fined the firm $5000 for its attempt to mislead the federal court. The judge noted that Righthaven has been acting as a law firm, adding: "In the court’s view, the arrangement between Righthaven and Stephens...
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It's been two weeks since US District Judge Roger Hunt effectively decapitated Righthaven's business strategy of falsely claiming copyright ownership before suing everyone in sight. Righthaven and its partner Stephens Media, however, don't seem to have gotten the message. Much as a chicken can continue to run around sans head, the company's lawyers continue to embarrass themselves. The latest bit of foul play is a half-baked attempt to introduce a further-amended agreement between Righthaven and Stephens Media. Stephens claims this is justifiable because the company "has been left to defend a non-infringement declaratory counterclaim despite the fact that it is precluded from filing an infringement...
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In early 2010, a copyright holding company named Righthaven was formed. The company first purchased copyrights from Stephens Media, the parent company behind the Las Vegas Review Journal. Once it had its rights in hand, Righthaven revealed its business strategy: Suing journalists, bloggers, children, and one very angry chipmunk. (All of the emphasis and italics in quotes below have been preserved from the court decision (PDF)). By this past January, Righthaven had filed 205 cases--an impressive achievement for a company that wasn't even a year old at that point. The company typically demanded $75,000 and the domain name of the infringer. The lawyers on staff weren't shy about tackling big...
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In early 2010, a brand-new company named Righthaven began cutting deals with newspapers by promising to safeguard their content online. Said protection consists of suing anyone and everything for so-called copyright infringement, even in situations where no sane judge would rule infringement had taken place. Now the tables have turned; Righthaven is facing a class-action lawsuit brought by the 57 Colorado-based companies it's sued for infringement. (As of this writing, Righthaven has sued a total of 275 bloggers, news sites, and reporters). The list of abuses Righthaven has perpetrated would make the RIAA proud. The firm has sued non-profit organizations, bloggers—some with tiny audiences—and...
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