Posted on 03/19/2011 5:21:20 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
One year ago, U.S. newspapers and broadcasters could feel confident they controlled the news content they created.
It was understood that competing and special-interest websites couldn't appropriate that content and post it without authorization.
When such infringements occurred, they were dealt with swiftly and effectively with a simple phone call or email.
Infringing websites typically had re-posted material out of ignorance they were violating the Copyright Act and agreed to remove the material or replace it with a link to the source newspaper or broadcaster.
Then along came Righthaven LLC of Las Vegas, the self-appointed protector of the newspaper industry from such news sharers.
Some 250 Righthaven lawsuits later, Righthaven's startling achievement is that newspapers now have less -- not more -- protection from copyright infringers.
Righthaven may argue its lawsuits have deterred rampant online infringements of newspaper material -- but there's no proof that infringements it usually targets involving bloggers and special-interest websites ever affected newspaper revenue in the first place.
Keep in mind Righthaven doesn't sue local news competitors of the Review-Journal and the Denver Post and it doesn't sue big news aggregators like Yahoo and Google -- likely because it can't find infringements by these sites.
Back to the lawsuits: Just two of Righthaven's lawsuits have been closed by judges on the merits -- both now resulting in fair use losses for Righthaven and its partners at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
While these aren't binding precedents upon other judges, these rulings can now be used by special-interest websites to justify their postings of what used to be copyright-infringing content. These, clearly, are setbacks for all newspapers interested in protecting their copyrights.
(Excerpt) Read more at lasvegassun.com ...
I hope Righthaven dies from a thousand cuts.
I hope Righthaven dies from a thousand cuts.
Excellent presentation of some really good news.
It’s my sincerest hope that just one of the suits/claims against RH for attorney fees and costs prevails and exceeds the total of all sums they have thus far extorted from little bloggers and websites and the others present an “EPIC FAIL” to their controlling “business plan.”
I expect to see RH’s recent suits filed against individual posters go the same way.
F’ RH. They are nothing but extortionist thugs. Maggots. Parasites. I so want one of these judges to deliver a huge $ bitchslap to RH.
However—no where did it say in the article that anyone would get their extortion money back. IMHO, they should not only get their money back, RH should be liable for all the lawyers’ fees that were incurred by everyone who had to defend themselves against the lawsuits.
“no where did it say in the article that anyone would get their extortion money back”
No. But it could set a precedent for others to sue them and recover ‘damages’.
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