English Professor and Former Righthaven Victim Fires Off Rounds in July Fourth Post

Last August, Margaret Soltan, an English professor at George Washington University was sued after excerpting part of a Las Vegas Review-Journal article on her blog. In a reflective July Fourth post, Soltan notes details about the "eager beaver" Righthaven attorney she corresponded with during her case, who now may be facing consequences. Soltan also reminds readers that although Righthaven is collapsing, "a lot of damage has been done, and that’s damage that you don’t ever really undo..."

UD’s July Fourth Post

By Margaret Soltan
Last summer, at just this time, my freedom to blog ended.
I lay next to my husband in bed one afternoon and said to him:
I’m going to stop. I’m going to shut the whole thing down and not write another word. This firm that has sued me – Righthaven – they could sue me again, for something else I’ve excerpted from a newspaper. Any other firm with the Righthaven business model could also sue me. Righthaven is seeking damages of hundreds of thousands of dollars from us. All because I excerpted part of a newspaper article. I named and linked back to the source of that excerpt, the way millions of bloggers do every day. I got no commercial benefit from it, because my blog has no advertising. But a man just came to our door and served me with legal papers that say that if I lose this copyright infringement case they’ve filed against me we will be ruined. I don’t have any choice. I have to shut down University Diaries.

See: Blog post in full | See: Related VEGAS INC article

It can't be measured how many former and existing Righthaven victims, and the law groups defending them, appreciate this post. All of us thank you for this Fourth of July contribution Margaret!