Former Righthaven Defendant Blogs About 'Beating Righthaven'

Beating Righthaven
By Donald Douglas

Righthaven sued me for alleged copyright violation on March 8, 2011. The docket listing is here. The lawsuit claimed that I'd infringed the copyright held by the Denver Post for its picture of the invasive pat down at this article: "Controversy over pat-downs, body scans lands at DIA."
--snip--
Righthaven files "no warning" lawsuits. That is, it gives no advance notification to defendants, which violates the norm of providing "take down notices" to those suspected of copyright violations. By doing this, Righthaven --- which made a speciality out of suing small-time bloggers and "mom-and-pop" businesses --- was able to scare the bejesus out of its targets, who then would settle out of court generally in the three to five thousand dollar range. Defendants were threatened with the possibility of a $150,000 judgment and the forfeiture of their website's domain name (URL address). Let me tell you: It's frightening as hell opening up that letter of service and reading the lawsuit...

See: Blog post in full

Attorney David Kerr, who represented Brian Hill, also assisted Donald Douglas.

Righthaven-Denver Post Agreement Made Public; Similar to Review-Journal Contract

UPDATE 07/09/11: A Saturday article by VEGAS INC sheds more light on the Righthaven-Denver Post contract. The Copyright Alliance Agreement between Righthaven LLC and MediaNews Group confirms that along with the Denver Post, other MediaNews newspapers are included in the contract for Righthaven's no-warning lawsuits. Thus far, no lawsuits have been filed over content from them:

• Contra Costa Times (CA)
• Long Beach Press-Telegram (CA)
• Los Angeles Daily News (CA)
• Oakland Tribune (CA)
• San Jose Mercury News (CA)
• Torrance Daily Breeze (CA)
• Pioneer Press (MN)
• El Paso Times (TX)
• Salt Lake Tribune (UT)

07/08/10
Righthaven/Denver Post Pact Made Public, Criticism Follows

A new round of criticism erupted Friday over the Righthaven copyright infringement lawsuits after the Las Vegas firm’s litigation contract with the Denver Post was made public.
The contract, obtained by attorneys in one of the Righthaven Colorado cases, is similar to Righthaven’s contract for Las Vegas Review-Journal lawsuits with R-J owner Stephens Media LLC in that the Denver Post receives a 50 percent cut of lawsuit revenue, minus costs.
And it has the same flaws as the Review-Journal contract in that it doesn’t give Righthaven standing to sue, defense attorneys said Friday.

See: Related VEGAS INC article

Attorney's at Randazza Legal Group made the contract public in a court filing Friday. Persons sued under the pact -- many of whom posted the TSA pat-down photo -- must be thrilled by today's news.

Denver Judge Stays All Righthaven Cases in Colorado; Cites 'Serious' Questions

Denver Judge Stays All Righthaven Cases in Colorado

"Because there are serious questions as to whether my exercise of subject matter jurisdiction over Righthaven’s claim of copyright infringement is proper, I think it most prudent to stay the proceedings in all pending cases in this district in which Righthaven is the named plaintiff," Kane wrote in an order filed today. "Should I find that I lack subject matter jurisdiction over Righthaven’s claim of copyright infringement, it is likely that I will be required to dismiss all pending actions. A stay will best conserve the parties’ and the court’s resources pending resolution of this fundamental inquiry."

See: Article in full

U.S. District Judge John Kane ordered the stay, but will rule on this jurisdiction issue in the case of defendant Leland Wolf, represented by Andrew J. Contiguglia and the Randazza Legal Group.

David Duke and His Nonprofit Group Settles Righthaven Copyright Lawsuit

White Supremacist David Duke Settles Copyright Lawsuit

White supremacist David Duke has agreed to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against him by Las Vegas company Righthaven LLC.
--snip--
Duke hasn’t responded to requests for comment about the lawsuit and neither he nor EURO ever filed a response in court to the lawsuit.
Righthaven filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit Friday, saying the case had been settled by written agreement. The terms weren’t disclosed.

See: Article in full

Something Fishy With Righthaven and The AP

A law website, law.com, is reporting that the Associated Press (AP) will not be dealing with Righthaven over protecting their copyrights. Dean Singleton who is the editor of the Denver Post and current chair of the AP has up till now been a strong supporter of Righthaven and it was thought that Righthaven would pick up the AP but what a couple of court losses and some very embarrassing high profile lawsuits such as Brian Hill of North Carolina make. Another bad move by Righthaven was to sue an AP affiliate, The Toronto Star, for posting the now infamous TSA image. Problem is it seems there were a number of AP affiliated papers that posted this image and credited the Photo to the AP.

According to Steve Green of the Las Vegas Sun other newspapers also recieved the photo and attributed to AP.

"We found the photo Wednesday on news sites including foxcharlotte.com, inforum.com, annarbor.com, deseretnews.com, heraldnet.com, washingtontimes.com and msnbc.msn.com, among others."

The question now being raised is how and why was the TSA image distributed by the AP and why the papers that printed it credited the AP and not the Denver Post? Why would Righthaven now sue a paper that printed this photo distributed by the AP if the Denver Post gave them permission? Or did they? So far no one has been able to explain this. This is a very serious matter because the distribution contributed to this image going viral. The Denver Post has some explaining to do on how the AP got this photo and if the AP had permission to distribute the Photo then why is an AP affiliate being sued and since the wide distribution of this photo encouraged it to go viral why did they sell the copyright to Righthaven to sue after it went viral?

These are very serous questions and should be raised by the lawyers involved defending Righthaven cases. This could even be the basis for a criminal investigation. Something is very fishy.

See: Related Las Vegas Sun article

Seventh Counterclaim Filed Against Righthaven; First in Colorado Court

Righthaven Faces Seventh Counterclaim Over Copyright Lawsuits

Las Vegas newspaper copyright enforcer Righthaven LLC was hit with a seventh counterclaim Tuesday, this time over one of its lawsuits over the Denver Post TSA pat-down photo.
Attorneys Natalie Hanlon-Leh and Spencer Ross of the firm Faegre & Benson LLP in Denver filed the counterclaim in behalf of Freedom Force Communications, The Say Anything Blog, Scott Hennen and Rob Port. They were sued Feb. 4 after the photo appeared on the Minot, N.D.-based sayanythingblog.com website.

See: Article in full | See all counterclaims filed against Righthaven.

Price Increase: Righthaven Now Asking Bloggers for $6,000 to Avoid Trial

Brian Hill: Hobby Blogger Sued by MediaNews & Righthaven...
According to blogger and activist Brian D. Hill, copyright trolling group Righthaven LLC recently demanded $6,000 for an out-of-court settlement. In 2010, the price was reported to be between $2,000 to $3,000 and $3,000 to $5,000. The price increase, particularly for individual bloggers, is significant at a time when many believe the U.S. economy is being sucked into a black hole. It's unknown how much Righthaven is asking of larger entities, such as Care2.com, Inc.

According to Hill, a Righthaven representative responded by telling me "that if I paid them $6,000 in an out-of-court settlement, it wouldn't go to trial."
Unfortunately for Hill, he has neither the $6,000 nor enough money to travel to Colorado for a hearing. He received a summons last week that gives him 21 days to respond -- "so me and my mom sent a letter to the judge to try to get him to dismiss the case." And if he doesn't? "Then the only way we can afford to go to Colorado is to countersue Righthaven and have them pay the filing fee."

See: Article in full

Brian Hill is the author of U.S.W.G.O., an alternative news website, and a video podcaster.

Righthaven-Singleton Duo Nails David Duke; Rocky Mountain Right Goes Off-Line

• David Duke, the nation's best-known white supremacist, is being sued by Las Vegas copyright enforcement company Righthaven LLC. | See: Article in full
• Rocky Mountain Right is temporarliy off-line due to the decision by the Denver Post to partner with RightHaven | See: Website announcement
• Righthaven goes after website with a registered DMCA agent, Pajamas Media, after posting TSA pat down photograph | See: Article in full