R.I.P. Righthaven

Righthaven, for a few months, was a blogger nightmare in which this law firm would sue bloggers and web sites for copywrite infringement of the Las Vegas Review Journal pictures and articles.
Today, a Las Vegas judge probably nailed the final nail into the coffin of Righthaven as he ordered Righthaven to pay almost $120,000 in lawyers fees.
From the Las Vegas Sun: Newspaper copyright infringement lawsuit filer Righthaven LLC of Las Vegas was hit Wednesday with an order to pay $119,488 in attorney's fees and costs in its failed lawsuit against former federal prosecutor Thomas DiBiase.
This was by far the largest fee award against Righthaven, but likely will be dwarfed by an upcoming award in Righthaven's failed suit against the Democratic Underground. Before Wednesday the largest fee award against Righthaven was for $34,045 — an amount Righthaven says it's having trouble paying or even posting a bond to cover.
DiBiase has a website covering no-body murder cases, or cases where a murder is suspected but the victim's remains have not been located. He was sued by Righthaven last year over allegations he posted without authorization a story on such a murder case by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt in Las Vegas dismissed Righthaven's suit against DiBiase this summer because Righthaven lacked standing to sue him under its flawed lawsuit contract with R-J owner Stephens Media LLC. http://www.vegasinc.com/news/2011/oct/26/righthaven-ordered-pay-nearly-120000/
If Righthaven cannot pay a $34,000 judgement, they certainly cannot pay $120,000.
Righthaven sued without warning, bloggers like DiBiase and web sites like the Drudge Report and demand $150,000 and the web site web address. It was a shakedown in which Righthaven tried to make quick settlements before the other side got lawyers. However, once the defendants started hiring lawyers, it was game over.
Righthaven and the LVRJ did a great disservice to the newspaper industry. Copywrite laws are constantly being violated by bloggers and newspapers have a valid point about people just cutting and pasting articles and not providing links or credit to the newspapers. However, instead of sending warning letters and e-mails and then sue, Righthaven and the LVRJ went for the kill and hoped people would be ignorant or scared and they would settle.
Now bloggers will have a sense of entitlement to all articles on line and there probably isn't much the newspaper and magazine industry can do now and we can place a lot of the blame on Righthaven and Sherman Fredricks, former editor of the LVRJ who hired Righthaven and defended the lawsuits.
Too bad Righthaven acted like a bunch of thugs and really helped destroy some copywrite laws in this country.