Righthaven’s Secret Contract Revealed: Will Its Strategy Collapse?

[Newsjock]

Source: PaidContent.org

Angered at Righthaven’s behavior, a Las Vegas federal judge unsealed the company’s heretofore confidential agreement with the Las Vegas Review-Journal late on Friday. The contract reveals that the controversial copyright-enforcement company and LV R-J parent company Stephens Media are splitting their net earnings from suing hundreds of bloggers on a 50-50 basis. It also shows that the LV R-J is still largely in control of Righthaven’s litigation strategy — a fact that could end up being ruinous for Righthaven’s campaign of copyright lawsuits.

... If the lawyers representing DU are successful in this argument, it would undermine every lawsuit Righthaven has filed based on LV R-J copyrights.

... DU lawyers want to go after attorneys’ fees — and there is now a scenario in which it’s not just Righthaven but its newspaper clients that will have to pay. Since Stephens Media never truly lost control of its copyrights, it should be brought into the lawsuit as a party, DU lawyers argue. Attorneys’ fees in a case like Democratic Underground — which is employing top IP lawyers from both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Fenwick & West, one of Silicon Valley’s go-to law firms — could easily run into the low six figures. (These lawyers have taken the DU case on a pro bono basis, but that doesn’t mean they can’t collect attorneys fees at market rates.)

So what began as a business deal in which there was no downside for Stephens Media now looks like a situation where the company could be on the hook for a serious chunk of change. It’s worth noting that the contract actually has a specific clause (see Section 11) in which Righthaven indemnifies Stephens Media in the event that attorneys’ fees need to be paid to an opponent. But could Righthaven really fulfill that obligation? What assets does Righthaven really haven? Likely not much; it’s a company set up just to file lawsuits.

Read more: http://paidcontent.org/article/419-righthavens-secret-contract-is-revealedwill-its-strategy-collapse/

[FSogol]

1. K & R. - Haw-haw. n/t

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Go, Skinner! Go,Skinner!

[ladywnch]

3. love the judge's statement here:

Judge Hunt criticizes how Righthaven has attacked opposing counsel, writing: “There is an old adage in the law that, if the facts are on your side, you pound on the facts. If the law is on your side, you pound on the law. If neither the facts nor the law is on your side, you pound on the table. It appears there is a lot of table pounding going on here.”



Table ain't all that's getting pounded!

[blondeatlast]

4. Oopsie, this may hurt a little (I hope, call me a sadist if you must!)...

In other words, none of the important things that come with a copyright—such as the right to make copies of a work, or distribute it, or make “derivative works”—were handed off to Righthaven. Only the right to sue was given, and that makes the copyright transfer bogus, argue DU lawyers.

If the lawyers representing DU are successful in this argument, it would undermine every lawsuit Righthaven has filed based on LV R-J copyrights. Righthaven has filed more than 250 lawsuits, mostly against small blogs and websites; every one defendant now has access to this unsealed agreement. If Righthaven’s agreement with MediaNews and The Denver Post is similar, it really could destroy their whole project, since those are their two main clients.

DU lawyers want to go after attorneys’ fees—and there is now a scenario in which it’s not just Righthaven but its newspaper clients that will have to pay.

[benld74]

5. serious chunk of changeserious chunk of changeserious chunk of change