Newspaper Enlists Startup To Police Web For Copyright Violations

Righthaven LLC v. National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Has Decisions
Filed: March 15, 2010 as 2:2010cv00351 Updated: July 13, 2010 06:37:41
Last Document Filed: March 15, 2010
Plaintiff: Righthaven LLC
Defendant: National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
Presiding Judge: Judge Lloyd D. George
Referring Judge: Magistrate Judge Peggy A. Leen
Cause Of Action: Copyright Infringement
Court: Ninth Circuit > Nevada > District Court
Type: Intellectual Property > Copyright

http://dockets.justia.com/docket/nevada/nvdce/2:2010cv00351/72150/

ORDER DISMISSING CASE re 36 Joint Stipulation of Voluntary Dismissal with Prejudice. Signed by Judge Lloyd D. George on 7/9/10. (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF - EDS)

What is interesting is that Righthaven would appear to have no actual damages. If someone re-posts one of these newspaper articles, the only legitimate entity which could claim damages would be the newspaper or the author, who misses out on hits to their website thus losing potential advertising revenue. Righthaven is not collecting revenue for selling the articles, they are collecting on the lawsuits (and I imagine they are sharing the revenue with the newspapers as part of the deal to transfer ownership of the copyright to Righthaven).

Aha!

As I recall, one must establish actual damages in order to sustain a lawsuit in Federal Court.

You may have hit the bullseye on how to get a Summary Judgment for dismissal and costs.

Thank you so much for sharing your insights, dear brother in Christ!

They sue a form like ours? Naw, I donty want to poast anything from them.They have the marketing acumen of a pile of rocks.

Its the old Stephan Jobs, Bill Gates dichotomy,. We know how that went.

They plan tomake money by subrogatong their suit rights to a swparate commpany designed purposefully for litigation.

Naw, that rag can die. Buh Bye!

see #61 Could that dismissal with prejudice make Righthaven’s action against FR a frivolous suit?

Generally a "voluntary dismissal with prejudice" means that the parties settled the case. That would mean that NORML paid these worms to drop their suit. This is the whole reason they file these suits. They hope that they can extort a settlement.

This worked in California with the Trevor Law Group who was filing hundreds of frivolous suits and settling them all for something like $5000 which the defendants were more than happy to pony up instead of paying $25,000 to an attorney to defend the claims.

Eventually they sued the wrong people and the State began an investigation which ended up in all of those lawyers losing their licenses.

Maybe by suing Free Republic they have bitten off more than they can chew.

In the meantime is there some way we can start a boycott of the advertisers on the Las Vegas Journal Review? We should start posting the names of the principle advertisers for LVJR and then make it a point to have all the blogs and news forums in the United States boycott every one of their advertisers until they call off the Righthaven dogs. The fact is that LVJR did not suffer any damages for the alleged copyright violations. But they just may suffer a lot of damages if all the newsforums and blogs that care about the dissemination of information and freedom of speech suddenly looked upon the LVJR as a pariah. Righthaven is nothing but a bunch of thugs. The fact that LVJR hired them to be THEIR thugs makes LVJR worse than the thugs they hired.

From:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=129625

“The advocacy group National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws has settled a lawsuit brought by copyright enforcement outfit Righthaven by agreeing to pay $2,185.

The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed in March against the nonprofit by Righthaven for allegedly infringing copyright to three Las Vegas Review-Journal articles. “

Irony of ironies, but FreeRepublic copyright and posting rules prohibit us from posting stories from Wired, but this one deserves a look. Here is our Nemesis, the face of evil, our adversary. A rally cry should go forth.

Admin Moderator: if I have transgressed the restrictions, pull this thread and send me to time out. I beg forgiveness, etc, etc.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/tag/righthaven/

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