Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Monday, April 26, 2010 | 8:38 a.m.
Sun Coverage
A sixth website operator has been sued over allegations that copyrighted Las Vegas Review-Journal stories were posted and reproduced without authorization.
Righthaven LLC of Las Vegas, which has been acquiring copyrights to R-J stories and suing alleged violators of those copyrights, last week filed suit in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas against Mark Chavez, whom Righthaven says runs the website www.thelobolair.com, which covers University of New Mexico sports.
The suit claims Chavez violated Righthaven's copyright rights by posting on the website several Review-Journal sports stories.
"Mr. Chavez reproduced the work (copyrighted stories), in derogation of Righthaven's exclusive rights," the lawsuit charged.
A request for comment on the allegations was placed with Chavez last week.
Righthaven earlier this spring sued five organizations and businesses claiming they violated its copyrights by posting Review-Journal stories.
Those suits were filed against MajorWager.com Inc. of Ontario, Canada; Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington Inc.; Henderson real estate agent Matt Farnham; New Jersey firm MoneyReign Inc. and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Washington, D.C.
Comment removed by moderator. Off topic.
If the RJ is at least getting a mention as a source, then the publicity to the RJ is worth more than any copyright award. If not, then those guys are stupid for taking the stuff.
I guess the R-J's suing Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington because CREW thinks most of the politicians the R-J supports are neither responsible nor ethical.
I'm waiting to hear when most of these suits are tossed out for being frivilous. Is it too cynical to suggest that these suits are simply an attempt to develop an additional revenue stream for the RJ?
sue sue sue thats why insurance costs are always so high
Typical stupid suing lawyers. This just makes money for lawyers and does not protect anything.
The US has more lawyers per capita than any other country because we have the stupidous laws that only protect rich and powerful people screwing the little guy.
BOB635 you are 100% correct. Hopefully everyone will wake up and realize that the United States is in a Class War. The rich are trying to further destroy the middle class and poor so they can make sure to keep the power. We must rise up and take back this country or very soon it will be to late.
i sold advertising for that paper for about 5 years...this speaks VOLUMES about how they operate. it shows you how "penny wise / pound foolish" they are.
the bad will and bad press this generates is 10 times worse than what those stories REALLY cost the paper. the minute those stories hit the web...they are essentially obsolete.
What part of copyright don't these people understand? Internet bloggers and users think they have rights to everything written or photographed. It was only a few years back that Napster and websites like that ruined the music industry.
This is obviously not merely about copyright. Otherwise a Cease and Desist letter would have been sent first, but none was sent to any of the sites being sued. Instead it's a very transparent and predatory money shakedown.
Interestingly, and perhaps tellingly, Las Vegas based Righthaven apparently hasn't initiated a similar suit against UNLV discussion board Rebelnet, which is certainly a more serious violator of LVRJ article postings than Lobolair.
Bob, what you don't understand is that the online edition of the LVRJ is free. Free!! So linking it from a website only brings in more traffic and that extra traffic is exposed to advertisers. This has to be the dumbest lawsuit ever. If the content were premium then yes they have a case but since it's free the parties involved should lose their jobs for stupidity.
You all are missing the point. If a story is cut and pasted, the link wont' be used cutting off advertising revenues. I've sold advertising in radio and internet websites in the past and the number of readers or listeners dictates how much you can charge and if advertisers are going to buy. What these idiotic websites do is take away potential readers and take food out of my kid's mouth. What gives them the right to ruin my employment opportunities for their fun