Righthaven Archives
Newspaper copyright infringement lawsuit filer Righthaven LLC tried again Friday to revive its litigation campaign.
The company disclosed that for a second time, it has amended its copyright assignment and lawsuit contract with Stephens Media LLC, owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
All of Righthaven’s 274 lawsuits over newspaper content are based on copyright assignments from – and contracts with – the owners of the Review-Journal and the Denver Post.
In a filing Friday, Righthaven suggested that despite recent adverse court rulings, it wants to forge ahead with its stated mission of protecting newspaper content – though critics say its lawsuit campaign is actually just a litigation shakedown operation aimed at putting money in the pockets of Righthaven’s investors.
"Over 200 years ago, the framers of the U.S. Constitution recognized that written works and other forms of artistic expression were deserving of legal protection," Righthaven said in Friday’s filing. "The digital age, however, has allowed infringement to occur on a massive scale. Righthaven was created precisely to stem this tide of unabashed copyright infringement on the Internet brought about by the technological ease of copying."
U.S. District Judges Roger Hunt and Philip Pro last month dismissed four Righthaven lawsuits over R-J material because, they said, Righthaven lacked standing to sue under the first and second versions of the Stephens Media lawsuit contract. Pro added a fair-use ruling against Righthaven in one of those cases.
Righthaven didn’t have standing because it didn’t have exclusive ownership of the copyrights at issue, those judges ruled.
Critics of Righthaven say copyright infringement lawsuit plaintiffs must have full control of copyrights to have standing to sue. They say copyrights have a special place in the law as they encourage creativity and expression -- and they shouldn’t be reduced to mere commodities that can be brokered to lawsuit filers.
On Friday, Righthaven responded to an order to show cause why 10 more lawsuits shouldn’t be dismissed for lack of standing. That order was issued last month by U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks in Reno and covered all 10 Righthaven cases he is presiding over.
In filings Friday, the Las Vegas company said the third version of the lawsuit contract with Stephens Media addresses the reasons Pro threw out a lawsuit against Kentucky message board poster Wayne Hoehn on standing grounds.
Righthaven said the lawsuit contract, called the Strategic Alliance Agreement, now, among other things:
--"Clearly and unequivocally grants Stephens Media a nonexclusive license to exploit assigned copyrighted works" -- content provided to Righthaven by Stephens Media and now owned by Righthaven.
--"Eliminates Righthaven’s obligation to give Stephens Media 30 days advance notice before being able to exploit a copyrighted work for any purpose other than in connection with an infringement action (lawsuit)."
--"Replaces Stephens Media’s 14-day right to repurchase a copyrighted work with the considerably more restrictive right to repurchase such content for fair market value five years after assigning the work to Righthaven."
"These provisions were expressly revised to address the concerns expressed in the Hoehn decision," Righthaven said in Friday’s filing. "In short, the restated amendment is a response to the analysis provided in the Hoehn decision and, as such, it should be found to effectively confer Righthaven standing to maintain its copyright infringement claims."
Righthaven on Friday also filed five amended lawsuits on Friday based on the third version of the lawsuit contract.
The amended complaints were filed against Brien Smith, Chris Brown Web Network, Charles Coker, John Kirk and Bob Sieber.
Hicks hasn’t indicated when he’ll rule on the standing issue.
Besides working on the Hicks cases, Righthaven is preparing for a hearing next week before Hunt in which he has threatened to sanction Righthaven, and it faces another hearing this month before U.S. District Judge James Mahan on whether a case he is handling involving the Pahrump Life blog should be dismissed.
Righthaven’s Colorado cases remain on hold while the lone judge handling them works on the standing issue, and Righthaven faces a new counterclaim and a new motion to dismiss in its lone case in South Carolina.
In a separate development in the copyright infringement world, key Internet service providers agreed this week to work with the movie and music industries to stem massive unauthorized downloading of films and songs.
In contrast to Righthaven’s no-warning lawsuits, this arrangement targeting rampant online piracy involves reminders, warnings and educational efforts targeted at suspected infringers.