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Tuesday, March 1, 2011 | 1:50 a.m.
Las Vegas copyright enforcement company Righthaven LLC said Monday it's been in "substantive confidential settlement negotiations" with the attorney for North Carolina lawsuit defendant Brian D. Hill.
Hill's case has attracted attention in Colorado, North Carolina and Virginia because of his assertions he's a hobby blogger and can't afford to fight Righthaven or pay its $6,000 settlement demand because of his disabilities including diabetes, hyperactive attention disorder and mild autism.
Righthaven, which sued Hill over a Denver Post TSA pat-down photo that was posted on his website, told U.S. District Judge John L. Kane in Denver in a status report Monday it's "hopeful" a resolution can be reached.
But Hill's attorney is indicating a dispute has already erupted between he and Righthaven's counsel.
Attorney David Kerr in Fort Collins, Colo., is representing Hill on a "pro bono" or free basis as a public service and made his first appearance in the case Friday.
Kerr filed a motion Monday with Kane asking for a chance to amend the response that Hill filed to the lawsuit in the form of a letter. That letter was received by the court Feb. 22, and was sent before Hill obtained an attorney.
Kerr said Righthaven's counsel has refused to consent to giving Kerr time to file an amended answer.
"Opposing counsel for plaintiff has indicated verbally to the undersigned that it considers the letter as the defendant’s answer, however, issues remain nonetheless," Kerr wrote in Monday's filing.
"As the defendant’s letter explains, defendant Hill apparently has a mental disorder that may, among other aspects, impact his legal status. Additionally, in spite of its heading, the defendant’s pro se (without a lawyer) letter does not reply to each allegation in the complaint and does not raise all desired defenses.
"The defendant’s pro se filing is not adequate as a responsive pleading and its status as an answer is uncertain. This motion is filed to facilitate the filing of a more formal answer, to permit a response to all allegations if appropriate, to allow the raising of certain defenses and to permit any other response issues to be raised," Kerr's filing said.
Given Kane's record of expressing concern that litigants are properly represented in court, look for him to allow Kerr time to file an amended response -- unless Righthaven comes up with a settlement offer that Hill can't refuse.
***
Separately, Righthaven may be facing a legal headache over another of its suits over the Denver Post TSA photo -- this one against Pajamas Media Inc., which Righthaven identified as the registrant of the website pajamasmedia.com; and Bryan Preston, identified as its Austin editor, a columnist and contributor.
Denver attorneys Marc Flink and Raj Chohan of the law firm Baker & Hostetler LP, representing Pajamas Media Inc., said in a court filing Monday that Pajamas Media Inc. was wrongly sued as it is a suspended California corporation that is not operating, has no assets and has no connection to the Pajamas Media website pajamasmedia.com.
They said pajamasmedia.com is owned by OSM Media LLC, a Delaware company doing business as Pajamas Media.
Righthaven has not yet responded to these assertions.
The Denver attorneys said they had tried since Feb. 22 to get Righthaven attorneys on the phone to straighten out the apparent case of mistaken identity, but Righthaven didn't respond to their phone messages of Feb. 22 and of Friday -- forcing them to file a motion Monday seeking an extension of time to respond to the lawsuit.
But Righthaven attorneys Shawn Mangano and Steven Ganim in Las Vegas filed a status report in the case Monday saying they'd sent Pajamas Media Inc. a letter asking Pajamas Media to give the Righthaven attorneys a call.
"As of today’s date, neither defendant(s), nor counsel of record for defendant(s), have formally responded to Righthaven’s meet and confer correspondence," the Las Vegas attorneys said in their filing.
At some point, it's likely these attorneys will actually connect on the phone.
Just think a take down letter would put a stop to anything that was posted, but than again, how would the scam artist Righthaven make money, they are a disgrace to all lawyers.....!
Chunky says:
Thanks Sun... more names exposed of our local citizens, lawyers Mangano and Ganim who are propagating this Righthaven mess. What great neighbors and friends to have!
If you know a Righthaven attorney or employee and agree they are abusing our judicial system as many people do, please let your friend / colleague know how you feel about it; peacefully and professionally of course.
That's what Chunky thinks!
do u think lawyers care what you think
Rightklaven and its attorneys have no compassion, they are sub-human.
Rightcoven is as despicable as the police who ordered the cute, little Girl Scouts to stop selling cookies because they didn't have a license. I hope someone puts a stop to this. It's clogging our already burdened court system.
There is no doubt that Gibson and company are feeling the backlash of being nationally noted for suing a disabled lad for innocently posting such a Rembrandt. Having said that, I predict that the terrible disservice they have done to the disabled will cause them to drop the matter, entirely. Perhaps a generous cash donation by Gibson's Righthaven to the Autism Society of America Foundation will ease their conscience.
American Justice Dot Org
http://www.americanjustice.org
1st, it is impossible for any person to know if a person is disable when they sue them.
It is not like on his website it has in big bold letters that the owner of the website is disable.
The disable person is not excused from having some ethics either.
So he threw ethics out of the windown when he decided, despite the warning on Google Images that the images may be copyrighted, to use an image on his website without seeking permission.
All these lawsuits would never happen if people practice basic ethics.....don't steal....it is that simple...and you will not get sued.
I wouldn't think ethics is a term you'd want to loosely kick around regarding these lawsuits.
It is not ethical to cut and paste other people's work and then post it on your own site.
Says you.
Ok.....so I can go by your place of work and steal stuff.....cool.
It figures. Steve Gibson, morally deficient equal opportunity offender that he is (IMHO) would fail to give even the most basic legal courtesy to a pro se defendant in a sham lawsuit filed solely to extract a bounty from the poor fellow. Shew, just when you think a new low cannot possibly be achieved Gibson shatters another barrier of resistance.
"Ok.....so I can go by your place of work and steal stuff.....cool."
Oops, sorry Sarge. I stole your work. I think you need to sue me.
It's very encouraging that a number of victims are fighting back against this abuse of the legal system. The fact that you won't find ANYTHING on Slimehaven in RJ is pretty telling.
Silly boy...Terry.
You have very little orginal content on your site. There is nothing to steal.
Amazing a guy with tag SgtRock speaking about original--or people stealing others works!
He's just another troll.