Mega Legal Fee Bill in Case Defending the Democratic Underground is Revealed: $774,00

Review-Journal Owner Facing $774,000 Fee Demand in Righthaven Case

"Righthaven and Stephens Media had an improper motivation in the pursuit of this lawsuit and their litigation campaign more generally. They sought to shake down website operators and bloggers for nuisance-value settlements with threats of seizure of their domain name and huge statutory damage awards, regardless of whether those defendants’ uses of the works at issue were actually infringing,'' said a filing Tuesday in federal court in Las Vegas seeking recovery of legal fees by Democratic Underground attorneys. ''As to deterrence, an award of fees is necessary to dissuade these parties and others from any similar scheme of shakedown lawsuits threatening staggering statutory damage awards and seizure of websites. Righthaven and Stephens Media pursued these claims such that numerous instances of legitimate fair use, like that here, would necessarily be dragged into their litigation machine."

The Democratic Underground was represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and attorney Laurence Pulgram at Fenwick & West LLP in San Francisco. In their motion to be reimbursed for fees, Pulgram and EFF attorney Kurt Opsahl said over 1,000 hours were spent fighting Righthaven and Stephens media. Part of this included a counterclaim involving Stephens Media, which led to the discovery of the Strategic Alliance Agreement, and Righthaven's lack of standing to sue.

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