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Wounded Copyright Troll Still Alive and Kicking
Hugh Pickens writes "Steve Green writes that even as defendants who defeated Righthaven in court and won their attorney's fees complain they haven't been paid a total of $216,000 and try to seize Righthaven assets, the copyright troll proved that it is alive and kicking by filing a brief that District Judge James Mahan in Las Vegas was wrong to find an Oregon nonprofit was protected by fair use in posting an entire R-J story on the relationship between immigrants and Las Vegas police. A key factor in Mahan's decision was that the defendant, the Center for Intercultural Organizing in Portland, couldn't harm the market for a copyright to the story Righthaven obtained for lawsuit purposes from Stephens Media. Mahan also 'found that because the work was a news article, the totality of its content was informational and permissible for productive use by others,' Righthaven's outside attorney Shawn Mangano wrote in his brief that 'in reaching this erroneous conclusion, the district court failed to accord any degree of creative effort to the work (story) whatsoever.' In a second appeals brief, Mangano appeared to face an uphill challenge in arguing that Righthaven had standing to sue or should have been allowed to sue after amending its Stephens Media lawsuit contract to fix defects — assertions rejected so far by six Nevada judges. The defendants in the appeals have not yet filed their briefs, and it's likely to be months before the appeals court hears arguments on the cases."
How many of you feel we're still going to be hearing about the ghost of Wronghaven for years to come?
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
This is why zombie lawyers are the most feared D&D monsters. There is always something you should have been keeping in your inventory to kill them but didn't.
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
With a legitimate argument. Sure they are going to appeal. Because they are out of business if they don't.
-- $G
Appropriate the internal organs of righthaven lawyers whenever they show up in court.
That is just an offal idea...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Just don't go for the spine, you won't find any.
Judges used to be lawyers. So you are seeing a part of the Good-ol-boy network in action.
It's how cops that are dirty or evil get protected by other cops.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
You can claim anything you like. Whether it stands up in court is a different matter though.
Don't forget how politicians enter into the mix - take a look at how many US politicians started out as lawyers.
Then again, anyone from an honest profession can't afford to spend the amount of money it takes to run these days.
Huh? Righthaven was ruled against, by multiple judges. They missed several deadlines to pay the fees, and US Marshals were ordered to seize their property (not sure how that turned out). To be honest, I'm not even sure how or why they can still file briefs.
If anything, Righthaven is an example of the legal system actually working more or less as it should: frivolous lawsuits get thrown out and the defendants get paid their legal fees. Or will, if Righthaven ever actually obeys the law.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
well it seems the problem was that they bought copyrights to a story that has no market besides them
No, that's not what happened. Righthaven bought the _right to sue for copyright infringement_. And several judges told them, completely logical, that if you don't own the copyright, then you have no standing to sue, and it doesn't matter if the copyright holder sells you the right to sue.
Let's say you go to Avis and pay them money to rent a car for two weeks. So for two weeks you have the right to drive their car. Except if you lose your driving license. In that case you don't have the right to drive the car, even though Avis sold you the right to drive it.