There is an accurate count of lawsuits
filed by Righthaven (275)
[1]; an accurate count of funds
owed by Righthaven ($8,815) and an estimated count of funds
seized by Righthaven ($350,000). There is not, however, a count of the actual number of persons sued in these lawsuits. In many cases, Righthaven names two or more persons in a lawsuit. Though there are unknowns, basic math after reviewing our internal spreadsheet shows an estimated
500 Righthaven victims.
A codefendant recently sent an email to Righthaven Victims alerting us to this overlooked fact. The Media Awareness Project (
MAPinc.org) was part of the second lawsuit filed by Righthaven, the case against The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (
NORML),
first filed in March 2010. The source of the article in the lawsuit originated from MAPinc.org. After discovering this, Righthaven amended its lawsuit to include MAPinc and
re-filed April 6, 2010 (No: 2:10-cv-0351-PMP).
The Media Awareness Project is a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit that has gathered newspaper, magazine and web articles about drug policy since 1995. At the time of the lawsuit, NORML was a client and was able to display articles on their website under the indicia that originated from the MAPinc archive. While many followers of the copyright trolling group Righthaven LLC know
how the NORML case settled, many do not know that this settlement did not include MAPinc.
The Media Awareness Project is yet
another modest nonprofit sued by Righthaven and was fortunate enough to secure pro bono legal representation from Ridder, Costa & Johnstone LLP, a San Francisco-based intellectual property law firm. MAPinc ultimately settled with Righthaven on July 8 and August 3, 2010. Having just contacted Righthaven Victims now -- a full year later -- clearly the pain and difficulty of the lawsuit, even
with pro bono legal representation, has not been forgotten.
