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Righthaven Loses Again
Hugh Pickens writes "Righthaven, the Las Vegas copyright troll, won't be collecting any damages from a man it once branded as a copyright infringer but instead must pay the man's legal fees of $34,045. US District Judge Philip Pro awarded the fees in the case of Kentucky message board poster Wayne Hoehn, finding that Righthaven didn't have standing to sue him due to the Review-Journal maintaining control of the column [and that] Hoehn was protected by the fair use doctrine. This is the second attorney's fee award against Righthaven. These are likely just the tip of the iceberg, with prevailing defendant Thomas DiBiase asking for $199,250 while the Democratic Underground will likely seek a fee award of many hundreds of thousands of dollars after Righthaven was dismissed from that suit for lack of standing. The bottom line for Righthaven is that so far it has not won a single lawsuit of 275 filed since 2010."
The bottom line for Righthaven is that so far it has not won a single lawsuit of 275 filed since 2010.
But how many smaller blogs, websites, etc have settled because they couldn't afford it if they fought back and didn't win?
Best part was that Righthaven tried claiming they shouldn't have to pay the defense's fees because they had no right to sue in the first place and therefore the court had no jurisdiction at all. I love the defense's response:
Righthaven deserves some credit for taking this position, as it requires an amazing amount of chutzpah. Righthaven seeks a ruling holding that, as long as a plaintiff’s case is completely frivolous, then the court is deprived of the right to make the frivolously sued defendant whole, whereas a partially frivolous case might give rise to fee liability.
Isn't this the sort of situation disbarment was designed to handle?
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
See Thomas DiBiase and think Ted DiBiase?
Now let's see if it's enforced. I doubt that any winning defendant will ever see a red cent from Righthaven, before the profits get syphoned to Bermuda and the empty shell goes bankrupt.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
They should seriously consider changing their name to "Wronghaven"...
This practice should be made illegal.
If each defendant is awarded similar fees the total bill for Righthaven could come to 275*35k = $9,625,000. ouch!
Those aren't punitive damages - they're legal fees, and Righthaven won't be able to afford to pay all the defendants back for the legal costs they've incurred defending themselves against these sleazes.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
A group of lawyers to disbar lawyer(s) over (alleged) wrong doing... Riiiight.
I don't know how that one flew, but if you can actually do that, would it be possible to go after the actual parties who are using it as a legal shield from liability?
I won't even explore which side of the legal line they're on compared to a good old fashioned extortion ring, or whether their misrepresentation of their interests would constitute fraud or not, for the people who settled with them.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
Rather than just compensation for legal fees, abusive prosecutions like this needs to result in assessments of punitive damages on the scale of 3-10x times the compensatory damages. That would end this kind of abuse very quickly.
.. the people they sued (not including Democratic Underground.. I wonder what would have happened if they didn't rile up a bunch of bloggers by suing a liberal blog) have had a LOT of stress and financial hardship.
One of the people Righthaven sued is known to me. He's tapped out savings paying lawyers to defend against Righthaven's utter bullshit.
I hope the people at Righthaven choke on a huge bowl of dicks. Rotten thieving motherfuckers.
Steve Green writes that in a stunning reversal for Righthaven, the Las Vegas copyright troll won't be collecting any damages from a man it once branded as a copyright infringer but instead must pay the man's legal fees of $34,045. US District Judge Philip Pro awarded the fees in the case of Kentucky message board poster Wayne Hoehn dismissing Righthaven's suit and finding that Righthaven didn't have standing to sue him due to the Review-Journal maintaining control of the column despite Righthaven's claims of ownership and even that if Righthaven did have ownership, Hoehn was protected by the fair use doctrine in posting an entire Las Vegas Review-Journal column on a sports betting website message board. This is the second attorney's fee award against Righthaven. Earlier, Randazza Legal Group was awarded $3,815 for representing defendant Michael Leon. But these are likely just the tip of the iceberg, with prevailing defendant Thomas DiBiase asking for $199,250 while the Democratic Underground will likely seek a fee award of many hundreds of thousands of dollars after Righthaven was dismissed from that suit for lack of standing. The bottom line for Righthaven is that so far it has not won a single lawsuit - of 275 lawsuits filed since 2010 - on the merits."
Ponca City, We Love You
Your employer can fire you for nearly any reason, or no reason at all, apart from some specifically prohibited things like racial discrimination. You can certainly be fired for making stupid decisions in the performance of your job.
Shame more news articles don't clearly state Righthaven's links to Stephen Media and it's titles. It'd be nice if Stephen Media titles suffered because of Righthaven's activities. I'm not optimistic though, as there are plenty of cunts who continue to read Murdoch's UK rag, and will almost certainly flock to his rebranded NoTW when it launches.
The saddest part is that we're fast approaching that, down a slippery slope.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
If by that you mean get rid of copyright and patent law, you are absolutely right. The negatives of those two sets of laws far far outweigh the benefits (even ignoring all the stupid lawsuits over them).
Copyright and patent laws will need to go the way of the dinosaur eventually if human civilization is to continue to advance. The sooner we do it, the better.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.