Righthaven loses second fair use ruling over copyright lawsuits

[Newsjock]

Source: Las Vegas Sun

An Oregon nonprofit did not infringe on copyrights when it posted without authorization an entire Las Vegas Review-Journal story on its website, a judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Judge James Mahan said during a hearing he planned to dismiss, on fair use grounds, a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against the Center for Intercultural Organizing (CIO), in Portland, Ore.

... Mahan, who last year raised the fair use issue in the CIO case without being prodded to do so by CIO attorneys, said the copyright lawsuit would be dismissed because the nonprofit used it in an educational way, the CIO didn't try to use the story to raise money and because the story in question was primarily factual as opposed to being creative.

... The ruling does not set a binding precedent for any of the other federal judges hearing Righthaven cases, but it's likely to cause Righthaven to consider whether it wants to risk another dismissal by suing a nonprofit. For Righthaven, its biggest legal challenge at the moment appears to be a counterclaim filed by the Democratic Underground in which Democratic Underground attorneys have suggested they've found evidence undermining Righthaven's lawsuits over Review-Journal material based on allegedly "sham" copyright assignments. Righthaven has disputed that assertion.

Read more: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/mar/18/righthaven-loses-second-fair-use-ruling-over-copyr/

[wtmusic]

1. Skinner is doing to Righthaven what the Australian kid did to his bully. nt

[alp227]

8. you mean the incident covered on TYT?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYThQX7WVs8

[wtmusic]

12. Yep. nt

[idrahaje]

23. Video's been flagged

lol.. not exactly the worst video in there.

[fascisthunter]

2. everybody at the same time: AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

[freshwest]

9. Don't forget...

:nopity:

[chill_wind]

3. K & R. n/t

[pacalo]

4. Skinner chose attorneys well, & it looks like a win.

A key issue in the litigation is the relationship between Righthaven and Stephens Mediaand their arrangement in which Righthaven was able to file its lawsuits after obtaining copyright assignments from Stephens Media.

Key to understanding the relationship is that Righthaven obtains rights to the copyrights weeks or months after they are allegedly infringed on by defendants posting stories, photos and graphics on their websites. Then, weeks or months after that, defendants are sued.

http://m.lvsun.com/news/2011/mar/04/defense-attorneys-claim-key-evidence-undermining-c/

[groundloop]

5. Good points. That seems to make it fairly obvious what they're doing.

And I hope they loose their asses, fraudulent lawsuits like that just really really piss me off.

[freshwest]

10. It's fraud by attorney. Smite them, Skinner!

[DeSwiss]

6. K&R

[freshwest]

11. Haha

They should have paid attention in biology class...

:woohoo:


Great pic.

[DeSwiss]

17. I found it in an online Wisconsin newspaper....

...the first day of the Capitol sit-in in Madison.

- I believe the firemen brought it in. But it might have been the teachers since the spelling's correct.

[freshwest]

19. Good strong folks there...

They are the vanguard.

[Bozita]

14. I would really like to steal that pic!

It would fit nicely into so many threads.

[DeSwiss]

18. You may have it! :-) n/t

[Bozita]

22. I'd like to offer one in exchange... the Walker/Snyder/Kasich/Daniels caricature

[freshwest]

20. Great sig there. Love Ambrose Bierce.

I refer to his Devil's Dictionary from time to time.

Er, and I already stole that pic...

:blush:

[plumbob]

7. Gawd! How will I sleep tonight with poor old Righthaven kicked to the curb?

Very well, thank you!

[Quantess]

13. "Oregon nonprofit"?

D.U.?

[Tess49]

15. DU is mentioned in the article.

[studmoose]

16. Support the EFF - Defending Against Groups Like Righthaven

.

Hi Folks,


Support the Electronic Frontier Foundation - EFF (the ACLU of the Internet and Digital Media)! www.eff.org

They help protect bloggers from these types of lawsuits and provide guidance how not to be attacked!


Here are just a few of EFF's posts regarding Righthaven:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/09/righthavens-own-brand-copyright-trolling

http://www.eff.org/cases/righthaven-v-democratic-underground



Apparently EFF is part of this lawsuit defense:

http://www.eff.org/press/mentions/2011/3/4-1

.

[freshwest]

21. Thanks for the links!

[FogerRox]

24. Skinner & EarlG marched with us against the IRAQ war a few years ago

Always had a lot of respect for the DU guys after that.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/r0J0GBicWrY

And to see DU standing up like this, Kudos guys.

[annabanana]

26. HA! I never saw that before.. Thanks. . . n/t

[pam4water]

25. Cheers.