The Las Vegas Review-Journal is one of the better newspapers out there and I even have a subscription to the paper, but the LVRJ is involved in an extortion plot like I have not seen in a long time.
The LVRJ is working in conjunction with a law firm named Righthaven and from the Las Vegas Sun, this is what they do: "Court records show the Review-Journal posted a 34-paragraph story on its website May 13 about Republican Nevada U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle titled "Tea Party power fuels Angle."
The records show that on the same day, Democratic Underground website user "pampango" posted the first four paragraphs of that story, crediting it to the Review-Journal, and included a link to the rest of the story on the Review-Journal website.
Righthaven on July 9 obtained the copyright to that story from the Review-Journal's owner, Stephens Media LLC, and then sued the Democratic Underground on Tuesday. Righthaven says its arrangement with Stephens gives it the right to sue for infringements occurring before it obtains the copyrights."
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/aug/11/righthaven-sues-democratic-underground-website-ove/
To me, this is unbelievable and preposterous. So, the LVRJ posts a story, a person puts on their blog a few paragraphs legally and then Righthaven, a few months later obtain the copyright of the story and then sues.
Righthaven and the LVRJ don't send an e-mail to the blog owner- they go right to suing.
This is like the City of Las Vegas posts a 35 mph on Las Vegas Blvd. Then they change the limit to 25mph and then writes tickets to those who drove 35 mph before they changed the speed limit.
Righthaven and the LVRJ have sued upwards of 100 blog sites, suing for $75,000 and then settle for a few thousand dollars.
Righthaven sues all different kinds of web sites- liberal and conservative, blogs about kittens and dogs, political and social action blogs and everything else in between.
I have used a lot of LVRJ material in the past but I only have used part of articles, but no more, unless it is a huge story.
This is nothing but an extortion plot by the LVRJ and Righthaven and it is tying up the federal courts with frivolous lawsuits.
While I understand the Internet has caused headaches to newspapers and people do steal things from newspapers sites and not properly credit their sources, Righthaven and the LVRJ have taken this to a whole new extreme. I also understand the LVRJ copyrights their stories when they are written, but then they ought to be the one's suing, not Righthaven.
So, while I will continue to receive the LVRJ, I will not link to them unless there is a huge story. I suspect that if more bloggers do this, the LVRJ will lose page views and in turn lose advertising revenue. So, who, in the long run, loses?
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They're doing this to big and little bloggers. . .literally making a federal case of it, with no warnings.
ReplyDeleteWhen I excerpt sories on my blog, I wouldn't ordinarily post 4 paragraphs. That seems excessive unless they are one sentence each or something. I always attribute and link (as seems to have been done here). I'm sure I've used LVRJ a few times over three years. Think they're going to go after me? I'm positive my use of any of their stuff is "fair use," but I sure can't afford a lawyer to prove it in court. Yipes.
I know, James, it's scary. I think we are in the right with fair use, but they might file suit just to harass and extort.
ReplyDeleteI hope someone takes it to trial and the court orders a payment of $1 and no court costs.
If this happens a few times, these guys will go out of business.
Good luck.
I thought about deleting any post I've done in the past with LVRJ attribution, but I'm not sure there is any point to it. I'm sure it's all cached, and I'd bet that if the lawyers are scouring the web for blogs with LVRJ excerpts, they've already found mine. I only have one post with four paragraphs excerpted from them, and I was right. . .they were very short paragraphs.
ReplyDeleteI hope that at least one of the targeted bloggers puts up enough of a fight that the subject becomes moot. Because if the RJ wins, it's going to have a profound effect on ALL blogs.
I had the same thoughts as well. What is out there will be saved somewhere.
ReplyDeleteAnd I probably just wrote my ticket to a lawsuit with this blog entry.