Judge deals death blow to copyright troll Righthaven

[Ian David]

Righthaven LLC., a law firm that became known as a “copyright troll” for filing hundreds of lawsuits against media companies and bloggers, was forever banished from its business model on Tuesday by a judge who ordered a transfer of all their copyrights to settle the company’s substantial debts.

After a series of stinging legal defeats last year, Righthaven found itself owing defendants more than $200,000 for their frivolous lawsuits. That was quite enough for U.S. District Judge Philip M. Pro, who ordered the company on Tuesday to forfeit all its intellectual property, which will be sold at auction.

For about a year Righthaven’s business model was a success: they would find a news website or blog that had republished snippets of a copyrighted news story that they had purchased rights to or represented, then file a lawsuit threatening up to $150,000 in penalties for every alleged infringement. Because the punitive damages are so hefty, most early defendants settled for much smaller sums, usually several thousand dollars.

But that all changed after they went after liberal news forum Democratic Underground, which they sued in Sept. 2010 over a five sentence news excerpt from The Las Vegas Review Journal, posted in the forum for readers to comment on.

More:
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/31ERUT/www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/14/judge-deals-death-blow-to-copyright-troll-righthaven/

[MADem]

1. Ain't that grand! nt

[bluerum]

2. Bout time.

[Iggo]

3. "But that all changed..."

Sweet music.

[gademocrat7]

4. Great news!

[tabatha]

5. Smart DU people.

[annabanana]

6. TA DA!!

Done, and done

(Looks around. . Who's next?)

Don't mess with the people.

[Cirque du So-What]

7. As I opined in the first thread I came across discussing this

perhaps the admins would consider putting in a bid on one of those news stories, and if it could be obtained cheaply enough, it could be put on a 'trophy' webpage of its own - representing the stuffed, mounted 'head' of a RW adversary.

[hootinholler]

8. Perhaps on a spike

At teh gates of the bastion as in days of yore when the rich owned everything, oh, wait... um, when laws were shaped by religious factions, shit that doesn't work either. Oh hell you know what I mean.

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. Great idea!!! Admins: are ya listening????????

[hifiguy]

9. Righthaven has been TS'd.

In perpetuity.

[11 Bravo]

10. Hey, you fuck with the bull, you sometimes get the horns. Eat shit and die, Righthaven.