Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Righthaven Gets Slapped Down

Righthaven, the cockroach law firm that goes after bloggers for the sole purpose of suing for supposed copyright infringements got slapped down in Federal Court today as a judge not only threw out an important case but is threatening to impose sanctions against Righthaven and their sleazy lawyers.
From the LVRJ: A Las Vegas-based company does not have the right to file copyright infringement lawsuits over Review-Journal content, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
In a 16-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt dismissed a case filed in August by Righthaven against Democratic Underground.
"We're studying the ruling, which primarily affects Righthaven," said Mark Hinueber, the Review-Journal's vice president and general counsel. He declined to comment further.
In his order, Hunt also expressed his belief that Righthaven "has made multiple inaccurate and likely dishonest statements to the court."
The judge specifically cited Righthaven's failure to list Stephens Media, which owns the Review-Journal, as an interested party in the case.
"Not only did Righthaven fail to identify Stephens Media as an interested party in this suit, the Court believes that Righthaven failed to disclose Stephens Media as an interested party in any of its approximately 200 cases filed in this District," Hunt wrote.
The Nevada judge gave Righthaven two weeks to explain in writing why it should not be sanctioned "for this flagrant misrepresentation to the Court."

http://www.lvrj.com/news/federal-judge-rules-las-vegas-firm-can-t-sue-over-copyright-infringement-123882024.html
Righthaven has gone after big web sites like Drudge, politicians like Sharron Angle but mostly mom and pop web sites like this one who may have blogged about a story in th LVRJ and then printed the part or thewhole story. Then Righthaven would sue the web site for about $150,000 and threaten to take away their domain name.
But some bloggers fought back and said that the LVRJ and Righthaven did not legally exchange copyrights. The Federal jusdge sied with them without even having a trial or a hearing.
So, this will be the end of the cockroaches named Righthaven. It is one thing to bring lawful legal actions, but it is different when the lawyers act like bullies like Righthaven did. And now, they will pay the price for being a bully.

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