Author Topic: Righthaven loses, may have weakened copyright law in the process  (Read 2745 times)

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Online IronDioPriest

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Copyright Troll Opens Floodgates to Mass Reposting
Righthaven set out to punish bloggers who reposted articles, but a federal judge just ruled nonprofits have exactly that right.


Las Vegas-based lawfirm Righthaven has been suing everyone from bloggers to commenters -- anyone who has posted even a portion of the text or images to which it owns the rights. Righthaven doesn't actually make anything, they just buy the rights to stories and images that have gone viral on the web.

Now, according to the Las Vegas Sun, Righthaven has scored what Ars Technica aptly describes as an "own goal": Not only did a Federal judge reject Righthaven's case against the non-profit Center for Intercultural Organizing, the judge also declared that non-profits may re-print entire articles from news outlets under certain circumstances.

The decision hinges on the portion of Fair Use law that declares that it's all right to re-distribute a piece of content as long as it doesn't hurt the market for the original content. In this case, there was virtually no possible overlap between the readership of the original piece (a Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper article) and the readers who would see the piece on the non-profit's website.

In seeking to reap maximum damages from as many defendants as possible Righthaven appears to have opened the floodgates to a kind of soft-infringement. For example, the argument could be made (but was not, apparently, in this case) that if any non-profit could reprint an entire article, rather than excerpting the article and linking to the original, this could actually constitute damage to the "market" for that article, in as much as it would reduce the number of pageviews that the original article received.

Clearly this was not the intention of Righthaven, but it raises the question: in its over-reaching, has the law firm set a precedent that could damage the ability of content creators and news gatherers to control how their works are used, and to achieve fair compensation for their distribution?
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charlesoakwood

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Re: Righthaven loses, may have weakened copyright law in the process
« Reply #1 on: March 24, 2011, 04:43:48 PM »

Quote
Now, according to the Las Vegas Sun, Righthaven has scored what Ars Technica aptly describes as an "own goal": Not only did a Federal judge reject Righthaven's case against the non-profit Center for Intercultural Organizing, the judge also declared that non-profits may re-print entire articles from news outlets under certain circumstances.

The decision hinges on the portion of Fair Use law that declares that it's all right to re-distribute a piece of content as long as it doesn't hurt the market for the original content. In this case, there was virtually no possible overlap between the readership of the original piece (a Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper article) and the readers who would see the piece on the non-profit's website.

This sounds like a win for free speech and open dissemination of information.
Would the legal department clarify this for the reader?  And are images considered part of an article?





Online IronDioPriest

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Re: Righthaven loses, may have weakened copyright law in the process
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2011, 04:57:32 PM »
It sounds to me like so long as a user is not profiting from copying all or part of an original work, reproduction is allowed. That's a brand new standard though - our term for it is "judicial activism". Intellectual property is protected from more than just commercial use.

I was under a misunderstanding regarding how this scam was going down. I thought that the clients were retaining Righthaven to go after copyright infringement on their behalf. But apparently, Righthaven was actually purchasing copyright licensing from these clients, and going after copyright infringement on THEIR OWN behalf, which means a couple things. One, as a commenter at the link said, Righthaven are "claim-jumpers" according to this ruling. Two, these media outlets are now going to lose the cozy revenue stream they had set up by charging Righthaven for copyright licensing. This will financially weaken these media outlets.
"A strict observance of the written laws is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means."

- Thomas Jefferson

Offline Alphabet Soup

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Re: Righthaven loses, may have weakened copyright law in the process
« Reply #3 on: March 24, 2011, 05:23:00 PM »
I just recently learned that FreeRepublic was the recipient of Wronghaven's extortion and that jimrob settled instead of fought. I also learned that they went after the DUmp (dummocrat underground) and when things went sideways tried to extract themselves. the DUmmies said, "Not so fast" and now it looks like Wronghaven is squealing because they may be on the hook for the DUmmies legal fees.

More popcorn please!

 ::popcorn::

charlesoakwood

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Re: Righthaven loses, may have weakened copyright law in the process
« Reply #4 on: March 24, 2011, 06:12:02 PM »

Blue on Blue, whoo!


Offline John Florida

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Re: Righthaven loses, may have weakened copyright law in the process
« Reply #5 on: March 24, 2011, 08:34:04 PM »
I just recently learned that FreeRepublic was the recipient of Wronghaven's extortion and that jimrob settled instead of fought. I also learned that they went after the DUmp (dummocrat underground) and when things went sideways tried to extract themselves. the DUmmies said, "Not so fast" and now it looks like Wronghaven is squealing because they may be on the hook for the DUmmies legal fees.

More popcorn please!

 ::popcorn::

 You would think that everybody they went after would turn around and bite them in the ass for past and future expense to litigate.
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Offline LadyVirginia

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Re: Righthaven loses, may have weakened copyright law in the process
« Reply #6 on: March 24, 2011, 09:09:35 PM »
It sounds to me like so long as a user is not profiting from copying all or part of an original work, reproduction is allowed. That's a brand new standard though - our term for it is "judicial activism". Intellectual property is protected from more than just commercial use.


Sounds that way to me too. 

Opening up a big can of worms there. If the standard becomes whether the user is profiting.
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Offline trapeze

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Re: Righthaven loses, may have weakened copyright law in the process
« Reply #7 on: March 24, 2011, 09:18:41 PM »
I would like to think that this will stop them. I don't think it will. They will have to be sued out of existence. And even then they will probably emerge somewhere else under a new name but with the same modus operandi.

Bottom feeding lawyers act in predictable ways.
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charlesoakwood

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Re: Righthaven loses, may have weakened copyright law in the process
« Reply #8 on: March 24, 2011, 10:04:14 PM »
I would like to think that this will stop them. I don't think it will. They will have to be sued out of existence. And even then they will probably emerge somewhere else under a new name but with the same modus operandi.

Bottom feeding lawyers act in predictable ways.

Down in Texas, it's pretty close to law now, it's called "Loser Pays".