filing lawsuits for alleged infringement of content created by others with the clear strategy for forcing quick settlements from bloggers who don’t have the resources to litigate a copyright claim in a Federal Court in Nevada.
Sweet.
However, a Federal judge in Nevada has slapped them down big-time.
A federal judge in Las Vegas today issued a potentially devastating ruling against copyright enforcer Righthaven LLC, finding it doesn’t have standing to sue over Las Vegas Review-Journal stories, that it has misled the court and threatening to impose sanctions against Righthaven.
Because he found Righthaven doesn’t have standing to sue, Chief U.S. District Judge for Nevada Roger Hunt dismissed Righthaven’s copyright infringement lawsuit against the Democratic Underground.
But he’s allowing the Democratic Underground to continue its counterclaim against Stephens Media LLC, owner of the Review-Journal. That could be expensive for Stephens Media as the Democratic Underground attorneys from the Electronic Frontier Foundation are asking to be awarded attorney’s fees.
“The court believes that Righthaven has made multiple inaccurate and likely dishonest statements to the court,” Hunt wrote in his ruling, citing specifically Righthaven’s failure to disclose Stephens Media as an interested party in the litigation as Stephens Media clearly had an interest in the outcome of the copyright lawsuits.
“Accordingly, the court orders Righthaven to show cause, in writing, no later than two weeks from the date of this order, why it should not be sanctioned for this flagrant misrepresentation to the court,” Hunt wrote in his ruling.
Ruh-roh...no more free money for them, it appears.
Copyright is supposed to be a means of maintaining order, in the marketplace and in the law, allowing creators to own/control and derive income from that which they create. It was never intended to be a billy-club used to extort money from the world at large.
HT Outside the Beltway.
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