Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble3 copyright suits filed over R-J stories on Web sites
Friday, April 16, 2010 | 11:01 a.m.
Sun Archives
A company associated with the Las Vegas Review-Journal has sued two more businesses and an organization, claiming they have infringed on copyrights by posting Review-Journal stories on their Web sites without authorization.
In a suit filed this month in federal court in Las Vegas against MajorWager.com Inc. of Ontario, Canada, Righthaven LLC of Las Vegas charged MajorWager has been posting Review-Journal stories involving sports and sports betting on its Web site without authorization.
A look at the MajorWager Web site on Friday showed it posts link to stories involving sports and gambling from numerous sources including the Las Vegas Sun and the Review-Journal.
A request for comment was placed Friday with MajorWager.
Another suit was filed this month in the same court against Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Inc. (CREW), claiming it posted without authorization Review-Journal stories including stories about ethics and criminal investigations of Nevada Sen. John Ensign.
A CREW Web site, crewsmostcorrupt.org, includes links to Ensign stories from numerous sources including the Las Vegas Sun, the Review-Journal and Las Vegas television station KLAS.
Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said Friday that CREW first learned there was an issue with it posting Review-Journal stories when CREW was sued.
"We were surprised that if the Review-Journal had a problem with us, they didn't contact us," Sloan said.
Sloan said CREW attorneys are looking into whether the online posts are allowed under the "fair use" doctrine involving published or broadcast material.
Sloan also said it was troubling that CREW was sued by Righthaven, as opposed to being sued by the Review-Journal, because she said it appears that Righthaven was assigned copyrights by the Review-Journal so Righthaven could operate as a money-making venture suing alleged copyright infringers.
Righthaven officials haven't responded to requests for comment on the company's relationship with the Review-Journal in which it has obtained Review-Journal copyrights and then filed infringement lawsuits based on those copyrights.
Also sued in the same court this month was Henderson real estate agent Matt Farnham, a Realtor with RE/MAX Associates.
A look at Farnham's Web site on Friday showed it includes stories on real estate by publications including the Las Vegas Sun, the Review-Journal, the Orlando Sentinel and CNNMoney.com.
"Omnia publicly displays an unauthorized reproduction of a substantial portion of the work (copyrighted story) at the Web site, in derogation of Righthaven’s exclusive rights. Mr. Farnham has willfully engaged in the copyright infringement of the work," Righthaven charged in the lawsuit against Farnham and his company Omnia Alliance LLC.
Farnham said that until he was contacted by the Sun on Friday, he was unaware there was a concern with his posting Review-Journal stories.
Farnham said he had felt that posting such stories, while crediting the source, was appropriate and that he didn't intend to plagiarize any information.
"Every time I've done it I've cited the source and complimented the source and said 'this is a good story by the Sun or the Review-Journal,'" he said. "It's good information I wanted to put out there."
Two other copyright suits filed by Righthaven in March involving Review-Journal stories are pending. They were filed against MoneyReign Inc. and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- UNLV can move forward without the burden of losing streak to San Diego State
- A wife’s wisdom shows birth control issue needn’t be divisive
- Surprise links, negotiated deals addressed by commissioners
- Motorcycle accident claims life of man in northeast valley
- Hope and change and … what’s missing?
- New York mayor has the right idea
- We don’t need a CEO in charge
- Paying our own way
- Country has ‘given’ citizens a lot
- Jerry Tarkanian: Mike Moser impresses yet again on a day to remember former Rebel greats
Blogs
The Kats Report
Color from scene at Thomas & Mack: We have a wire job! Rebels win, and Louie Armstrong sings!
South Point owner Michael Gaughan's take on 'Vegas Stripped': 'I'll give it an 8' (4 Comments)
Author relishes writing the life story of ‘larger-than-life’ Oscar Goodman (3 Comments)
Elsewhere
Landowner: All roads could lead to Uxbridge casino
Revel reveals smoke-free casino opening
Cirque du Soleil show in Sands China casino to close this month
Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
It does appear to be a money making venture, otherwise why didn't the LVRJ contact the offender and request that they simply remove the content.
What a waste of courtroom time.
gee why didn't i think of making money that way.
I think it's ridiculous. Just go lookup Righthaven LLC on
http://nvsos.gov/sosentitysearch/
It shows that "NET SORTIE SYSTEMS, LLC" is the officer of the company.
Then when you lookup "NET SORTIE SYSTEMS, LLC" it comes up with a lawyer's name.
Why all of the LLC's? Owned by other LLC's?
Stupid lawyer tricks.
Speaking of the Review Journal, has anyone read the 4-15-10 article written by Jane Ann Morrison with regard to Atty. Randolph Goldberg. It seems that the esteemed Mr. Goldberg was recently sanctioned and referred to the U S Attorney for possible criminal prosecution on forgery allegations and attorney misconduct. Wouldn't you think that these allegations from one of Nevada's most prominant attorney's would make front page headlines? I just happened to stumble upon the article yesterday which was quietly tucked away in the RJ Nevada News section. I wonder why there is no mention of this news worthy story in the L V Sun! Any comment Brian?
see...RIGHT now...RIGHT NOW every business that EVER advertised in the r-j should file a class action suit against the r-j for their "creative math" they use to get their readership numbers...that they in turn use as bait to sell ads.
Good Job, Take it from me hands down Russ Hawkins the owner of MajorWager.com is a fraud and lets not forget he has a tasteful history of posting private personal information on the internet.
Farnham said he had felt that posting such stories, while crediting the source, was appropriate and that he didn't intend to plagiarize any information.
"Every time I've done it I've cited the source and complimented the source and said 'this is a good story by the Sun or the Review-Journal,'" he said. "It's good information I wanted to put out there."
Farnham should be sued for saying any real estate information coming out of the Review-Journal is good information... ;)