Righthaven Observer Notes New Copyright Office Proposal; Harms Safe Harbor Protection

Dangerous Copyright Office Proposal to Undercut the DMCA Online Safe Harbors

By Eric Goldman
In light of SOPA and its capacity to destroy the current online safe harbor scheme, it seems almost quaint to keep worrying about 17 USC 512. However, unless SOPA/PROTECT-IP passes, 512 remains an essential part of the UGC economy, and it's worth fighting to preserve the safe harbor's integrity and all of the social benefits that have flowed from it.
Recently, the Copyright Office floated a proposal that would result in websites completely losing the 512 safe harbors due to administrative technicalities. Specifically, the Copyright Office proposes to force all websites that currently have properly designated an agent for notice to re-register or they will automatically forfeit the safe harbor...

See: Eric Goldman's blog post in full
See: Comments submitted to Copyright Office

VEGAS INC Reports on Waiting Game; Updates on Numerous Righthaven Lawsuits

Judges Still Weighing Key Righthaven Cases

U.S. District Judge James Mahan in Las Vegas on Friday canceled a hearing set for Monday on the issue and rescheduled it for June 30. That will accommodate the schedules of the attorneys and provide time for more briefs to be filed in the case involving the Pahrump Life blog – a case in which Mahan has said it appears Righthaven doesn’t have standing to sue over a story that appeared in the Review-Journal.
--snip--
In this case, against Leland Wolf and the It Makes Sense Blog, the lone Colorado judge handling the Righthaven cases, Senior U.S. District Judge John L. Kane, is expected to decide if Righthaven has standing to sue under its lawsuit contract with the Post and its owner MediaNews Group.
(Righthaven has agreed to provide the MediaNews Group contract)

See: Article in full

Case updates include: Pahrump Life, Leland Wolf, Dana Eiser, Michael Leon, Denise Nichols, Brian Hill, Thomas DiBiase, Wayne Hoehn, Dean Mostofi, Pak.org, Bill Hyatt and The Law Med Blog.

From The Law Med Blog:

The Law Med Blog can state without hesitation that should the lawsuit filed be served, Law Med will NOT enter into a settlement but will file an answer and any motions, counterclaims, etc. that are warranted and avail itself of all legal avenues and remedies in its defense. We will not simply soil ourselves and take out our checkbook because a ‘big scary lawsuit’ has been filed. We are fortunate to have the knowledge and resources that allow us to see this for what it is and exert our rights under the law to successfully defend against it. The outrage is that other defendants do not…and Righthaven counts on that fact when targeting them.

Kudos to The Law Med Blog!

Righthaven Disputes Fair Use Defense Brought in Recent Copyright Case

Righthaven Disputes Fair Use Defense in Copyright Case
Righthaven attorneys argued against the Center for Intercultural Organizing (CIO) fair use defense this week (See: related post). Some key points include:

• "The defendants’ implied license argument is clearly procedurally improper: the assertion of an implied license theory is entirely non-responsive to the court’s order to show cause concerning fair use. Additionally, the defendants’ implied license theory is so far-fetched..."
• "The defendants are conveniently ignoring the fact that the Las Vegas Review-Journal (LVRJ) website only permits users to save a hyperlink leading to the articles published on the LVRJ website, or to e-mail a hyperlink leading to the LVRJ website..."
• "A defendant’s nonprofit status or educational motive does not somehow provide a blanket exemption from liability for infringement."
• The infringement at issue isn’t protected by the fair use doctrine because fair use in part requires the use to be "transformative."

Read: Article in full | Picked up by the Associated Press

TechDirt.com: Copying Full Article Does Not Always Preclude Fair Use

Law Professor Explains How Even When A Site Copies An Entire Article, It May Still Be Fair Use

Berkeley law professor Jason Schultz has filed an excellent amicus brief in one of the many Righthaven lawsuits, pointing out that using an entire article does not preclude fair use (pdf), and then going on to explain why the use of an entire article in this particular case (which Righthaven brought against the Center for Intercultural Organizing) was almost certainly fair use...

See: Article in full | View: Amicus Brief (Professor Jason Schultz)

Implied License Argument Heating Up: "Friend of the Court" Brief Filed by Former EFF Member

Judge Focuses on Question of ‘Fair Use’ in Copyright Lawsuit

“The article has been removed from its usual habitat. It is not owned by a newspaper, but has been assigned to a company that does not publish news stories, but uses them exclusively to file infringement lawsuits. That practice has a chilling effect on potential fair uses of Righthaven-owned articles, diminishes public access to the facts contained in them and does nothing to advance the Copyright Act’s purpose of promoting artistic creation. When a copyrighted work is simply an instrumentality for litigation, it is properly granted the lowest possible amount of protection against a fair-use claim,” the brief said.

Read: Article in full