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Thursday, July 1, 2010 | 1:50 a.m.
Sun Coverage
- Three more websites hit with R-J copyright suits (6-29-10)
- R-J copyright suit filed against newspaper source (6-25-10)
- 3 more R-J copyright suits filed; defendant responds (6-10-10)
- 8 more websites sued over R-J copyrights; 34 total (6-5-10)
- Former news anchor among targets of new R-J copyright suits (5-30-10)
- 4 more copyright suits over R-J stories brings total to 22 (5-28-10)
- 4 more sites sued over alleged R-J copyright infringements (5-20-10)
- 14th website sued over R-J copyright allegations (5-17-10)
- More suits over alleged R-J copyrights bring number to 13 (5-14-10)
- Suits accuse groups of posting copyrighted R-J stories (5-5-10)
- Two more websites sued over posting of R-J stories (5-3-10)
- Sixth copyright suit filed over R-J stories on websites (4-26-10)
- 3 copyright suits filed over R-J stories on Web sites (4-16-10)
- Suits accuse 2 groups of posting copyrighted R-J stories online (3-17-10)
Groups promoting the legalization of Internet gambling and safe medical injection practices are among the latest to be sued for copyright infringement after Las Vegas Review-Journal stories allegedly were posted on their websites without authorization.
Six copyright infringement lawsuits involving Review-Journal stories were filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas against:
--Hyde Park Communications Inc., alleged operator of the website for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative in Washington, D.C. Court records show several Review-Journal stories involving Internet gambling were posted on the website, with the R-J credited as the source of the stories.
--Mary J. Santilli in Boston, who operates a blog about the American Idol TV show called mjsbigblog.com. Records show the blog website in April posted an R-J column, crediting the R-J, about American Idol contestants visiting Las Vegas.
--South Coast Partners Inc. doing business as Keller Williams OC Coastal Realty in San Clemente, Calif.; Taloa Inc.; and two officials associated with South Coast: real estate broker Robert Walter Hunt and real estate agent and mortgage company officer Jeffrey L. Nelson. The suit says Hunt supervises Nelson at the real estate brokerage.
The suit says Nelson is also the president of Taloa.
Court records indicate that on May 3, an April 30 R-J story about a homeownership program in Nevada was posted on a Taloa real estate website -- without attribution to the R-J.
--Honor Inc., a Fremont, Neb., nonprofit company advocating for patient safety and justice, and an individual associated with the company, Evelyn McKnight.
The nonprofit website www.oneandonlycampaign.org allegedly posted an April 30 R-J story about a hepatitis C lawsuit. The R-J was credited as the source of the story, court records show.
A look at the website Wednesday showed it has links to numerous medical stories from around the country, including additional stories by the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Las Vegas Sun.
The website says the One & Only Campaign, promoting "One Syringe Only One Time," is a public health campaign led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Safe Injection Practices Coalition.
--Dean Mostofi, whose address and contact information were unavailable, and who allegedly has a website called deanmostofi.com. That site in April allegedly posted an R-J story about a lawyer being reprimanded for running misleading advertising. Only partial credit to the Review-Journal was included with the post, court records show.
--Ronald Gollner, whom Righthaven says ran a blog forum called rgryan.vox.com. That site allegedly posted a March R-J column involving politics. The post was credited to a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau who contributes to the R-J.
Messages for comment were left with Hyde Park, Nelson, the Safe Injection Practices Coalition and Gollner. Mostofi could not be located for comment.
Santilli, in Boston, said she was surprised that she was being sued since no one from the R-J had contacted her to advise her that her posting of the R-J column was infringing on a copyright.
Santilli, who lists 5,430 followers on her Twitter account, said that besides posting the story on her blog, she had re-Tweeted R-J Tweets about the American Idol contestants visiting Las Vegas.
"I probably brought them a million 'hits,'" she said, adding she's a middle-age woman who blogs from her home and doesn't have any money for Righthaven to take as damages.
"This is a shock to me they would do something like that," she said of the suit, adding she regularly posts stories about American Idol from numerous news sources and always credits the sources.
"I'm not knowingly infringing on anybody," Santilli said.
The suits were filed by Righthaven LLC, which has partnered with the R-J to file copyright infringement lawsuits. At least 56 such lawsuits have been filed since March over Review-Journal stories.
someone needs to sue the freaking r-j for misleading readership numbers.
according to their rate card, basically 2 people in every house in las vegas reads their paper each day and we know this isn't possible.
I hope people quit granting free interviews with there reporters, The RJ may claim that the public has a right to know but the person being interviewed is entitled to what the market will bear.
Me personal I would give a story away to anyone other than the RJ.
It would be nice to here from someone giving a press release to all except the RJ they should have to pay for there's.
When I stopped subscribing to the dead tree version of the paper I compared the Sun's and the RJ's websites. Even though I prefer the editorial slant of the RJ, I decided to get my news from the Sun because your web layout is heads above the RJ's. They didn't know how to use the internet then, and this lawsuit proves they still have no idea what to do with the internet. Are they crazy?? Suing bloggers who fully credit the RJ as the source? They are clueless. The best way to generate readers in the age of the internet is to get a link from another site. I'm astonished at their old-media mindset.
The RJ appears desperate for cash. While lacking a real vision that has mass appeal, their right wing slant obviously has grown tired and has now back fired in their face.
They should simply report the news and stop their anti-American bias.
This is really incredible of the RJ. Hopefully they realize a loss of business from this. I for one will not even load their website anymore.
It is a pity that the RJ is even somewhat focused on these suits rather than improving and broadening its local news coverage. The paper hasn't even covered its own lawsuit, which seems a bit odd considering that its "grubstaked" partner is up to nearly 60 of them.
Carroll said above that "The RJ appears desperate for cash." That might be true, but who knows because it's a private company. I guess we'll have to see if they have prove damages and open up their books. Now that would be interesting, especially because it's the "largest paper in the state," and has a miserable and apparently static circulation of under 200,000.
That sort of tells me that Sherm Frederick isn't really doing his job of making the newspaper a "must read" so maybe he does have to look for new sources of revenue.
Or maybe he's just trying to make a name for himself, though I'm not sure he's clear on what kind of name he's making. Seems to me that would have been a quicker resolution to the problem and maybe even more effective.
The real question for me is why the paper went right to suing as opposed to calling or writing the offending webmasters.
When you look at a lot of their story's they are from different sources they didn't even write them, you send readers to their news paper when you link a story that they have in their paper.
I am glad to see you are doing the right thing and getting the story out there, the only problem is the blogger that is given the paper full credit to the story and are still getting sued don't live here so they can stop buying the paper!
I will never buy one off them again!
Sherm's funny --- he goes on FAUX news and plays the victim when Harry R. said what he said last year.
Sherm's funny --- he's jealous that Ralston's got a tv gig and he doesn't.
Sherm's funny --- he thinks his content is worth suing over.
Sherm's funny --- he posts 177 words from a single Rolling Stone story and thinks that's "fair use".
Sherm's funny --- end of story.
For Sherm's advertisers --- I won't knowingly do business with your companies.
The RJ should be sued for waste of court time.
This is how Perez Hilton became well known- he was copying and pasting pics from other blogs and was sued. The RJ is just giving the sites free publicity- awesome! Most blogs are filled with posts that are reposted from other media sites. Thats called blogging...Its lazy blogging, but its all over the web. This lawsuit makes the RJ looks stupid. I think I may have posted an RJ story on my blog. Oops.
When a company starts filing frivolous lawsuits against its customers and readers, that is a sure sign that it is going down. The next step is bankruptcy. Stay tuned to the Sun to read all about it as it happens. You will not find this news in the R-J.
"The RJ should be sued for waste of court time."
If only that option were available, it'd be great.
"For Sherm's advertisers --- I won't knowingly do business with your companies."
It's unlikely you do any business with RJ advertisers now - Just look at the size of the paper and the number of ads -- How would you find one?
"The real question for me is why the paper went right to suing as opposed to calling or writing the offending webmasters."
Hmmmmm.... You really don't know why?
Maybe(just maybe) it could it be the money??
"Maybe(just maybe) it could it be the money??" Considering their circulation, it sure could be. Or, since they didn't win a Pulitzer, maybe this is their idea of getting recognized for "great journalism."
Green Valley Ranch ain't paying for itself...