Another Righthaven Appeals Case Dismissed, Another Fair Use Ruling Stands

Fourth Righthaven Copyright Lawsuit Appeal Dismissed

Copyright lawsuit filer Righthaven LLC of Las Vegas saw another one of its appeals dismissed Wednesday after Righthaven apparently abandoned the case. A deputy clerk at the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco dismissed Righthaven’s appeal of a 2010 ruling finding Las Vegas real estate agent Michael J. Nelson was protected by fair use in posting part of a Las Vegas Review-Journal story on his commercial website without first gaining permission from the R-J to do so.

The caveat with this fair use ruling is that U.S. District Judge Larry Hicks acknowledged that Nelson used the R-J story for commercial purposes, which often counts against fair use, but found that the posted portion was "factual" (not creative) and that Nelson's posting of the first eight sentences of the 30-sentence article was “likely to have little to no effect on the market for the copyrighted news article.” The is the fourth appeals case that has been dismissed after being abandoned by Righthaven.

See: VEGAS INC article in full