I wonder if leftist money is behind this shakedown. If the American Revolution has a sequel I would not want to be these guys!
Posted on 08/15/2010 12:11:09 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
A website that lists the victims of Righthaven LLC's "shake down" lawsuits that are causing irreparable harm to the blogging, non-profit and small business communities.
Righthaven LLC -- a bottom feeding legal outfit -- has teamed up with the Las Vegas Review-Journal to sue 'mom and pop' websites, as well as nonprofit, political action, community action, writers, and forum board operators for copyright violations. The strategy of Righthaven is to sue hundreds and thousands of these websites and counts on the fact that many are unfunded and will be forced to "settle out of court." All cases are being filed in a Nevada Federal Court and must be fought in this jurisdiction. You are not safe from Righthaven if you are out-of-state. Are you their next victim?
(Excerpt) Read more at righthavenvictims.blogspot.com ...
I see where they hit one of our members as well, for keeping an archive of gun self defense articles.
They are suing “Vote For The Worst LLC,” too! At least they are even-handed thieves. They are suing FR as well as DU.
Do they merely target those who re-post the Las Vegas Review-Journal? I have a blog with 50,000 vistors a day and have never once posted one of their articles.
ping
They are going to try to shut down the freedom of speech and the internet as we know it because the “truth” is hurting them dearly and exposing their leftist, Marxist schemes. The internet is shining a bright light on all their ugliness. They are desperate and deadly serious.
This is organized crime, and it is an attack on the First Amendment rights of the victims. The Justice Dept should file a civil rights and RICO suit.
Oddly I believe the LVRJ is considered a conservative paper.
Yup, they’re also going after DaveLoneRanger’s gun rights blog and basil’s Second Amendment Sisters organization. No blogger is safe from these yahoos even if they post excerpts only. In Second Amendment Sister’s case, it wasn’t even a post. I understand they simply had a feed running from another site. The other site had the allegedly infringing post in its feed.
I wonder if leftist money is behind this shakedown. If the American Revolution has a sequel I would not want to be these guys!
Thanks for the name.
Dave needs legal help.
These b*****ds are pushing the limits of civilization. If they sue enough people they may well pick a target that is a bit unhinged and they may get a visit at their office from this person. The results might be quite gory.
That would work if the DOJ, which is a part of the government, were on the side of the BOR. Since they're the ones it's there to protect us from, they're not too wild about it, especially the DOJ from a Marxist government like the one now in power.
Righthaven has achieved the impossible:
It has brought together Democratic Underground, conservative bloggers, marijuana advocates, and second Amendment Supporters (and every other spectrum of political expression) united in opposition to this extortion assault on the Internet.
As well they should unite: Righthaven is a grave danger to the First Amendment.
Currently, LVRJ is their only client, but they say they are seeking more. Gibson, Righthaven’s head shyster, says he sees a market for thousands even millions of these shake down lawsuits.
I was unaware that they were suing Basil.
Nevada freepers have said that it's more conservative than the LV Sun.
Hardly, Dingy Harry might think so though.
I even saw non-political forums get sued too from pets to tech.
Liberals doing what they do best - trying to silence opposition. They cannot argue facts or logic, so they use their power to redicule and shut down opponents.
We MUST continue speaking truth to power.
From the victims list, they’re equal opportunity litigators. They’ve filed lawsuits against progressive organizations, the DUmp, Free Republic and gun rights advocates.
Are they going after those that make so much as a reference, quote or snippet from their articles? If so, I imagine Daily Kos will be on the victims list as well.
I just cant understand how they can sue for an excerpt and a link to their website.
If they don’t want their articles quoted for discussion and educational purposes, they shouldn’t publish them.
I'll blog to that!
Naming Righthaven LLC bottom feeders is being too kind.
I'll blog to that!
I don’t think they’re politically motivated. Gibson is simply a profiteering shyster. He thinks he’s going to get rich through misapplying the law and scaring the crap out of unfunded bloggers. Like us, most bloggers are shoe string operations with no assets and no resources to hire legal talent. A lawsuit for $75,000 is liable to pucker up your nether regions if the only asset you own is your house. In my case, my house is under water, so have at it.
Have any of these LVRJ suits appeared before the court yet?
Remember Saul Alinsky. Use their own rules against them!
I hope that the rumors that I hear are true: that owners of these blogs and websites are banding together to beat this guy at his own game, in court. He is operating a shakedown racket that depends in large measure on his ability to coerce his targets into an out of court settlement.
I would welcome a fund raising campaign to solicit donations to a collective defense effort that would pool resources and develop a multi-pronged attack on this bottomfeeder.
Righthaven is also suing little home hobby blogs with near zero website hits.
It is the kind of blogs your grandmother might write.
Righthaven hires some underpaid losers to Google troll the Internet for any links to that disgusting Las Vegas rag.
THEN! AND ONLY THEN! does Righthaven buy the copyright from the rag, and initiate the suit WITH NO WARNING LETTER!
Is this even a legal business model?
I don’t think so. Saw an article this morning that says approx 30% of the 100 or so cases filed so far have settled out of court for amounts ranging from $2,000 to $5,000. They also withdrew a couple. It’s a quick-buck Nigerian scam.
No cease and desist order?
What a turd.
I see.
What an SOB this guy is.
Righthaven LLC -- a bottom feeding legal outfit -- has teamed up with the Las Vegas Review-Journal to sue 'mom and pop' websites, as well as nonprofit, political action, community action, writers, and forum board operators for copyright violations.
No advance warning whatsoever. We learned we were getting sued when someone posted a news article about the suit. Waited another week before finally being served.
That just ain’t right.
There are plenty of Nevada Freepers, can we fight them in their own court?
It's a fact that this jacka$$ is doing this for no other reason that revenue. Claims that it's some sort of campaign to protect anyones copyrights are obviously just cover. The entire method stinks and seems to me should be somehow illegal and fall under a crime of conversion somehow... he's looking for reprints, THEN buying the copyright in order to cash in.
Now that I've said that, it only seems fair that when reposting someones material, it should be a short excerpt and a link to the original publisher. It's the only way they can collect the advertising revenue and continue to post the stuff online that we enjoy reading for free.
I don't think this approach is the right way to deal with the situation. Polite communication between site operators can clear up 99% of these things with no hassles.
I'm like most.. I'd like to see this shark dragging from a bumper somewhere, but we should also be taking into consideration the source of the material... and I'm speaking generally here, not in favor of these two conspirators here who are doing nothing more than strong-arming non-profits and bloggers for a quick buck.
If this guy was reasonable he would send a cease and desist order.
Ping.......
Yes, and the congress set up a routine procedure for doing this. It’s called DMCA and it works great. We’ve received nearly three hundred DMCA take down requests in the last ten years and we’ve promptly and completely complied with each and every such request. If a blogger innocently posts more material than a publisher wishes published, all he has to do is request it be excerpted further or pulled, and we do so. It keeps the federal courts from being clogged up with nickel and dime nuisance suits.
Its called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). It provides a framework for copyright protections in the digital age. Righthaven is completely ignoring the intent of this act by refusing to notify offenders. Of course, if they did this, 99% of site owners would remove the materials and implement procedures to preclude reoccurence. This would put an end to the shakedowns and dry up the revenue stream.
They're suing the people that did that.
Polite communication between site operators can clear up 99% of these things with no hassles.
It's certainly obvious that you just don't get it.
But then he wouldn't make any money.
That's probably what he's referring to in that statement. It's not a case of bravado, just cold, hard facts.
Turnabout is fairplay. The victims could use the same software to countersue these guys and all their correspondent attorneys throughout the country.
Put the federal court system out of business fur shur.
Any possibility of organizing a national demonstration in front of the LVJR? Attract lots of local and national publicity and ask subscribers and advertisers to join the boycott by refusing to do business with the LVJR?
Certainly this is one stupid bunch of lawyers if they're doing business in Nevada and suing Californians!
Like what will they win? Maybe more dirt with no water rights.
You obviously didn't read my entire post.
I made it clear that in my humble opinion this particular situation is nothing more than a shake-down and should be a criminal offense (if I had my way about it). I was making a blanket statement outside of that in the defense of the folks trying to provide you with free news. I stand in full support of most of the DEFENDANTS in these cases; although I am unfamiliar with a lot of them. There are some that were probably in violation of this basic courtesy... Here on FR, it is rare to see a complete article posted and the admins have designed it in a way that the external and original source should be linked... On FR at least, it's done the right way.
My point is we shouldn't support people reposting articles anymore than we support folks redistributing music files. Not one time did I suggest the defendants in these cases were guilty of it. Even Mr Robinson points out that the system to avoid such things is in place and he cooperates with such requests 100% of the time. This is the simple communication I referenced.
Take your filters off and read my previous post again. Regardless if you are willing to accept it, I have read the articles and understand exactly what is going on, Sir.
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