Slashdot Mirror
The Rise of the Copyright Trolls
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "In the new mass filesharing suit brought in Washington, DC, on behalf of a filmmaker, Achte/Neunte v. Does 1-2094, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Citizen, and two ACLU organizations have filed an amicus curiae brief supporting a motion by Time Warner to quash the subpoena. EFF commented: 'We've long been concerned that some attorneys would attempt to create a business by cutting corners in mass copyright lawsuits against fans, shaking settlements out of people who aren't in a position to raise legitimate defenses and becoming a category of 'copyright trolls' to rival those seen in patent law.'" And reader ericgoldman notes a case that arguably falls under the same umbrella: "Sherman Frederick, publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, wrote a blog post declaring 'Copyright theft: We're not taking it anymore.' Apparently upset that third-party websites are republishing its stories in full, the newspaper 'grubstaked and contracted with a company called Righthaven ... a local technology company whose only job is to protect copyrighted content.' Righthaven has brought 'about 22' lawsuits on behalf of the newspaper, including lawsuits against marijuana- and gambling-related websites. Frederick hopes 'if Righthaven shows continued success, that it will find other clients looking for a solution to the theft of copyrighted material' and ends his 'editorial' (or is it an ad?) inviting other newspapers to become Righthaven customers. A couple of months back Wendy Davis of MediaPost deconstructed some of Frederick's logic gaps."
"If you reproduce a large part of the article or somehow intercept the readers, it has the same effect as stealing some money directly from their bank account."
Prove it -- prove that if I distribute a copy of some article, it will result in money being lost on the part of the newspaper. Prove that the people reading my copy of the article would have otherwise paid money for it.
This has been said a thousand times over, but somehow, nobody ever seems to get it.
Palm trees and 8
only dumbass fuckwit hippies here at slashpiracy are fucking stupid enoguh to think that anyone who doesnt think that "Information should be teh free!!!111111" is a troll.
Fucking grow up kiddies.
And worshipping this pathetic fake lawyer who only posts this drivel to drive ad impressions to his crappy blog is just sad.