Mistakenly Accused Pennsylvania Couple Turns Back Righthaven Copyright Lawsuit

Pennsylvania couple sends "nation's pre-eminent copyright enforcer" scurrying for judicial relief

Smethport, Pennsylvania – Righthaven, LLC, which hypes itself as the “nation’s pre-eminent copyright enforcer” has dropped its civil action against Nathan Muller and Linda Muller of Smethport, Pennsylvania. The law firm in Las Vegas, Nevada, was set up for the sole purpose of bringing copyright infringement lawsuits against webmasters, bloggers and forum posters.

On August 26, 2010, Righthaven filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada against the Mullers for allegedly posting without permission an entire article about Sen. Harry Reid which appeared in the July 8, 2010 issue of Las Vegas Review-Journal. The website named in the Righthaven complaint was the facetiously-named “Wehategringos” which covered topics related to immigration.

In a comprehensive, self-prepared response to the Righthaven complaint, filed on September 15, 2010, the Mullers demonstrated with argument and documentation that they had transferred ownership of the website more than one year prior to the alleged infringement and, consequently, the complaint naming them as willful infringers was misdirected.

With further research, Righthaven verified the facts presented by the Mullers and on January 21, 2011, filed a motion with the Court for a stay of discovery and a request to file an amended complaint against the true owner of Wehategringos. U.S. Magistrate Judge George Foley, Jr. accepted Righthaven’s request for relief on February 18, 2011 and notified all parties.

“Righthaven had no alternative but to drop its action against us,” said Nathan Muller. “We did not participate in any way in reproducing this article, nor could we be accused of turning a blind eye to what was happening on a website we no longer owned. Nevertheless, we had to treat the complaint seriously, or risk a default judgment.”

According to Linda Muller, “It would have violated any standard of reasonableness for us to be held accountable for an article posted on the website a year after we transferred ownership and relinquished all interest.”

From start to finish, resolution of the case took six months. After four months of no activity by the Mullers or Righthaven, both sides were ordered by Magistrate Judge George Foley, Jr. to file a stipulated Discovery Plan and Scheduling Order not later than January 21, 2011 in compliance with the provisions of LR 26-1 of the Rules of Practice of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. On that date, Righthaven filed its motion to amend the complaint and stay discovery.

The website at the center of the Righthaven infringement allegation is no longer available online.

This release was sent to righthavenvictims --at-- gmail.com.