Righthaven's Lawyers Target of State Bar Investigation

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Righthaven's Lawyers Target of State Bar Investigation

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday January 14, 2012 @04:24AM from the as-ye-sow dept.

New submitter nwf writes "Ars Technica reports that three of copyright troll Righthaven's company lawyers, including CEO Steve Gibson, are the subject of a Nevada State Bar investigation. Details of the inquiry aren't public, but judges have been blasting Righthaven's legal team so strongly in court that the move is hardly a surprise."

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The nice thing about our bloated legal system... by orphiuchus · 2012-01-14 04:27 · Score: 4, Insightful

...is that for everyone who tries to make a career by abusing it, there's someone who's made a career by stopping people like them.
Don't kid yourselves people. by pclminion · 2012-01-14 04:30 · Score: 3, Insightful

Don't kid yourselves. The ONLY reason Righthaven got boot stomped is because they were small and can't afford to pay off the right people. Not because what they were doing was "unacceptable" to our society. This is what happens when the little guy tries to play like the big guys.
1. Re:Don't kid yourselves people. by Runaway1956 · 2012-01-14 05:17 · Score: 2
  
  You're just so CYNICAL! Can't you just accept the fact that sometimes, the lawyers and judges manage to do something right, just because it's right?
  Ohhhh - who am I kidding here? Yes, you got it right, and the MAFIAA organizations are the proof of that.
  
  --
  "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
2. Re:Don't kid yourselves people. by hawk · 2012-01-14 06:40 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  I am a lawyer, but this is not legal advise. If you want legal advice, pay my retainer.
  That's just plain nonsense.
  Filing this stuff in a Nevada court was, shall we say, less than brilliant to start with. Neither our state or federal judges have much tolerance for trying to game the system with technicalities.
  Righthaven's "bright" idea was to technically assign the copyright to righthaven, which would sue, while leaving the beneficial ownership with the original holder.
  This violates so many basic principles that it's hard to list them all (lawyers owning an interest in the suit, a no lawyer firm practicing law, real parties in interest bring suit, . . )
  This is how righthaven lost, as it should have. It was also predicable, as log as someone stuck it the litigation.
  Now, if the papers had simply sued on their own behalf, some of the suits would have bee winnable. some, not all.
  The one that came across m desk involved an editor at the paper givng oral permission to use the articles, as long as they he full attribution. Turns out that righthaven was searching for the links back to the articles to find the "infringing" articles.
  Most of the uses out there probably were indeed infringing. However, it seems like the copyrights were only sent to righthaven after "violations" we're found, and only then registered with the copyright office' meaning that only actual damages were available up to the time of filing. With the articles remaining available from the papr for something like three bucks, this put a rather small cap on damages . . .
  hawk, esq.
Lawyers by DnaK · 2012-01-14 04:30 · Score: 5, Funny

Lawyers getting in trouble for falsifying information? My god i thought lawyers were the good guys!
1. Re:Lawyers by K.+S.+Kyosuke · 2012-01-14 04:43 · Score: 3, Interesting
  
  Remember, the Levenshtein distance between the pronounciation of "lawyers" and "liars" is very small.
  
  --
  Ezekiel 23:20
2. Re:Lawyers by tjhart85 · 2012-01-14 05:22 · Score: 2
  
  Yup, all doctors suck at their job because they don't diagnose themselves.
Please disbar them all! by danbuter · 2012-01-14 04:42 · Score: 4, Insightful

I hope all of them get dis-barred for life. It's the only way other attorneys will get the message.
For their next trick by djl4570 · 2012-01-14 04:49 · Score: 5, Funny

They will sue the Nevada State Bar Association.
Re:The nice thing about our bloated legal system.. by Captain+Splendid · 2012-01-14 05:02 · Score: 3, Funny

No, this is slashdot. All lawyers are evil. Get with the times man.

--
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Re:Stagnant by Runaway1956 · 2012-01-14 05:14 · Score: 4, Insightful

News is like food. I just ingest and digest the stuff, I don't bother remembering whether I ate from fine china, bone china, or throwaway paper plates. ;^)

--
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Re:The nice thing about our bloated legal system.. by Captain+Splendid · 2012-01-14 05:40 · Score: 2

You ever get dizzy riding that high horse?

--
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Re:The nice thing about our bloated legal system.. by Gideon+Wells · 2012-01-14 06:07 · Score: 2

I wouldn't say evil, but kind of like the real life version of a Dungeon Master. Sometimes they are evil, sometimes they are too far the other way, but get too many munchkins getting into a meta war you begin to appreciate them.

--
by Anonymous Coward: I, for one, welcome the shift from car analogies to pizza analogies. um.. overlords?
I'm surprised it took so long by msobkow · 2012-01-14 06:53 · Score: 4, Interesting

Here in Regina we have a lawyer named Tony Merchant who's been under investigation by the local bar many times, and he's not been chastized by the judges and the courts nearly as often as Righthaven.
I was starting to think there was no oversight of it's members behaviour with Righthaven and a few ambulance-chasers making the news repeatedly but never being investigated.
The bar association in each district is more than qualified and bound to pull the "lawyer licenses" from it's members who abuse their priveleges and the court system overall.
Tony is still practicing, of course. There were issues that had to be resolved with his practice, and restitution made, but he learned his lesson and was allowed to continue practicing as a result. An investigation does not mean the Righthaven lawyers will be permanent disbarred, even if they are found "guilty" of something by the bar association in their state.

--
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Re:The nice thing about our bloated legal system.. by jonbryce · 2012-01-15 05:32 · Score: 2

Including Eben Moglen and Lawrence Lessig?