Posted on 08/08/2012 5:54:28 PM PDT by Jim Robinson
Las Vegas copyright lawsuit company Righthaven LLC suffered another setback Wednesday when an appeals court dismissed one of its appeals.
The dismissal was requested by the nonprofit Center for Intercultural Organizing (CIO) in Portland, Ore., which won a key fair-use ruling last year against Righthaven.
The dismissal was granted Wednesday by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which cited case law that appeared to back arguments by the CIO that Righthaven could no longer participate in the case since creditors had seized the copyrights it sues over. In laymans terms, the CIO argued Righthaven no longer had a dog in the fight so the fight was over.
Righthaven, a company that worked with the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post to sue alleged infringers of content from those newspapers, filed 275 no-warning lawsuits in 2010 and 2011.
That was a departure for the newspaper industry, which usually tries to resolve copyright problems out of court before resorting to lawsuits.
The litigation campaign ended when Righthaven said it ran out of cash after a series of rulings finding it lacked standing to sue as a copyright assignee; or that defendants were protected by the fair use concept of copyright law.
One of its significant fair use losses came last year when U.S. District Judge James Mahan in Las Vegas said the CIO was protected by fair use in posting on its website an entire R-J story without authorization.
Righthaven appealed. The CIO said the appeal should be dismissed as being moot since creditors had seized Righthavens copyrights, meaning Righthaven lacked standing.
Righthaven didnt oppose the dismissal motion.
(Excerpt) Read more at vegasinc.com ...
This is very good news.
I wonder if any of the previous defendants of Righthaven’s actions can now go and counter-sue and counter-claim Denver Post and other papers who used Righthaven?
A BTT. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch. I’d be in favor of debtors’ prison and floggings...just this once.
You gotta hand it to Righthaven....it was an interesting business model, no matter how ill conceived.
This should pretty much finish off Righthaven and those who would seek to emulate them.
Good news!
Living well is the best revenge.
Righthaven’s zany antics have probably undermined the copyright act.
Thanks Jim.
BUMP
Vindication is good.
I keep looking for your “Like” button!
I was one of those sued by Righthaven. Twice, actually.
Nice to see that there is still some justice in this country.
Thank God.
I know the feeling of schadenfreude is not moral or upright. Never mind, Bwahahahahahaha!
What kind of idiot attorneys think that they can pursue a claim AFTER bankruptcy? Oh, yes, these kinds of idiot attorneys.
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