Defense: Entrapment

R-J Accused of Entrapment Over Copyright Enforcement
The Las Vegas Sun newspaper reports that Ryan Burrage, a Defendant in one of Righthaven's many "shake down" copyright infringement lawsuits, filed papers last week claiming the following:

• "At no time was it the intent of the defendant to defraud, cause harm, misrepresent, intercept website traffic, profit or exploit the Las Vegas Review-Journal..."
• "Use of the article fell under the 'fair use' clause of copyright law."
• "Contrary to the plaintiff's claim (of harm), linking back to the original source is a form of promotion for the original source which improves, not harms..."
• The alleged infringement is "the equivalent of a passer-by stopping in front of a newsstand and reading the front page of the newspaper, without actually buying..."
• "Even if a defendant was to republish an article from the LVRJ.com website directly, he is not only within his rights to do so, but all users of LVRJ.com are encouraged to..."
• "This lawsuit is entirely predatory, frivolous and an abuse of the United States..."
• "Plaintiff is engaged in a shakedown or extortion operation, with the express purpose of abusing the legal system to extort or shake down webmasters..."

Burrage offered to settle the dispute for $10.87, his Google Adsense revenue during the nine-day period he says Righthaven may be able to assert its claim of infringement for.