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Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.
Sun archives
- Righthaven settles 2 lawsuits over R-J story copyrights (9-13-2010)
- Another company fights back against copyright lawsuit (9-11-2010)
- Quick settlement reached in copyright lawsuit against PR company (9-10-2010)
- Texas woman emerges as vocal critic of copyright lawsuit firm (9-9-2010)
- Righthaven CEO defends company during roundtable discussion (9-9-2010)
- Copyright lawsuits filed against U.S. Marijuana Party, dating website (9-9-2010)
- Righthaven’s suit against Sharron Angle draws increased attention (9-8-2010)
- Defendant accuses Righthaven of misusing legal system (9-5-2010)
- Sharron Angle hit with R-J copyright infringement lawsuit (9-3-2010)
- Righthaven wins key ruling as new criticism leveled over suits (9-3-2010)
- Righthaven sues D.C.-based group over R-J editorial posting (9-2-2010)
- PR firm Kirvin Doak sued by Righthaven over Celine Dion story it promoted (9-1-2010)
- Why we are writing about the R-J copyright lawsuits (9-1-2010)
- Settlement reached after judge refuses to dismiss copyright suit (8-31-2010)
- Judge questions Righthaven over R-J copyright suit costs (8-26-2010)
- Consumer group offers help to defendants over R-J copyright suits (8-25-2010)
- Righthaven CEO’s law firm in merger (8-24-2010)
- R-J accused of entrapment over copyright enforcement (8-23-2010)
- Blogger asks to pay $200 to close R-J copyright suit (8-20-2010)
- 2 lawsuits over R-J copyrights lift total to 100 (8-19-2010)
- Website operators use new defenses to fight R-J copyright suits (8-18-2010)
- Righthaven reaches settlements in 2 cases over R-J copyrights (8-12-2010)
- Righthaven sues Democratic Underground website over R-J posting (8-11-2010)
- 5 more websites sued over R-J story copyrights (8-10-2010)
A group fighting the establishment of a prison in Pahrump is among the latest to be sued for copyright infringement after a Las Vegas Review-Journal story allegedly was posted on its website.
Righthaven LLC, the Las Vegas company suing website operators throughout North America over Review-Journal stories, on Tuesday filed suit in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas against Pahrump Life and two individuals associated with the group, Maren and Michael Scaccia.
This was one of at least four Righthaven lawsuits filed Tuesday, boosting its lawsuit total since March to at least 128.
The Pahrump Life website indicates the group is opposed to plans for a Corrections Corporation of America facility planned for the town in Southern Nevada west of Las Vegas.
Righthaven, in its lawsuit, says Mr. Scaccia posted on the website an Aug. 14 Review-Journal story about officials resigning from a private prison in Kingman, Ariz., after three inmates escaped.
Court records indicate the Review-Journal was credited for the story and that it linked to the Review-Journal website.
Also sued Tuesday were:
• The operator of the www.fieldandstream.com website, accused of displaying a July 19 Review-Journal story about a recent gun rights lawsuit.
That defendant is Bonnier Corp., which Righthaven says is the owner of the website domain name. Also sued was Clay Cooper. Though Righthaven didn’t say how he’s associated with Bonnier, he appears to be a prolific poster to Field & Stream message boards.
Court records and a look at the website Tuesday indicate the story was uploaded to the “Firing Line” portion of the website by Cooper with credit to the Review-Journal and a link to the newspaper website.
“Bonnier knew, or reasonably should have known, that websites, such as the (Field & Stream) website, are and were at all times relevant to this lawsuit, the habitual subject of postings by others of copyright-infringing content,” Righthaven charged in the suit, further alleging Bonnier failed to monitor for or delete infringing content from its website.
This “constitutes Bonnier’s willful blindness to copyright infringements occurring on the website,” Righthaven alleged.
• Paul Anthony Parson, whom Righthaven says has a website called www.americangunowners.net, where a July 12 Review-Journal story about Las Vegas police shooting and killing Erik Scott at a Summerlin Costco was posted.
That suit also claims Parson didn’t address the postings by others of copyright-infringing content and that also constitutes willful blindness to copyright infringements on the site.
The story in question was posted by user “GlockNut,” court records show. The post did not fully credit the Review-Journal but did have a link to the Review-Journal website, court records show.
Parson, in a telephone interview, said he lives in Dayton, Tenn., and runs the gun owners website as a hobby. He denied the story was posted by a third party since he is “GlockNut” and said he posted the story, not knowing that doing so could be viewed as copyright infringement.
Parson also said he didn’t find the story on the Review-Journal website but copied it from another website focusing on firearms. Parson said he wasn’t contacted by the Review-Journal or Righthaven and that the first he heard there was a problem with him posting the story was an inquiry from the Las Vegas Sun.
“I didn’t know anything about any infringement,” Parson said. “I wouldn’t have done it if I knew about that.”
• RawGuru Inc. and two officials at the Brooklyn, N.Y., company, Michael Petrushansky and Alex Malinsky.
Righthaven claims the company’s www.rawguru.com website, which is a “raw food vegan diet & lifestyle store,” displayed without authorization a July 19 Review-Journal story about the Tonopah Community Garden in Las Vegas. Court records show the Review-Journal received full credit for the story and there was a link to the Review-Journal website.
Requests for comment were left with the Pahrump Life, Field & Stream and RawGuru defendants.
As in all of its recent lawsuits, Righthaven in the new suits seeks damages of $150,000 apiece and forfeiture of the defendants’ website domain names.
My ultimate concern in this matter revolves around "posters" who get the websites in trouble. ie Third Party
As someone else in another comments section put it, "Does this mean I can attack websites i don't like with LVRJ links and stories?" It seems simple enough that even Righthaven could have a staff of people creating infringement. It's that simple.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/2010091...
The quote came from here. That article also mentions that they're targeting websites/forums that do not have DMCA protection. You should pick up on that angle Mr. Green.
Here's one scenario to think about.
1. Righthaven looks for infringement online
2. Among the websites that need to be sued, they look for ones with no "protection"
3.They file a lawsuit they "know" they can win essentially.
Even scarier, They can get a list of forums/websites that have no DMCA protection and spam those forums with "user posted content", then file a lawsuit within a day of it posting.
A few of these lawsuits were filed just days after an article was created, let alone posted. Is 1-2 days enough time for an Admin to clean up forums from spam?
Just something to think about.
Next they will be suing people who bring up Las Vegas Sun stories in casual conversations.
blee44 there are two things that websites can do to deal with copyright infringement by casual users.
Under DMCA, they can create a safe harbor by paying a fee and registering with the US Copyright office. When they do that then it will force people like Righthaven or LVRJ to send them a take-down notice before suing.
If they are a small website they all they need to do is either pre-screen each comment before it posts to their web-site or on a daily basis screen the comments and remove them if they contain copyright infringement.
I once had a blog site that had around 1,000 unique vistors a day to it with around 10 to 50 comments a day. I got an email each time somebody posted a comment. I reviewed it and it passes muster then I allowed it post. It was not that hard to do.
Case solved again.
That is the law. If you don't like the law then get your representatives to change the law.
SGT ROCK
For your review and response
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/sep...
Last three comments.
Guns4Hire,
Firefox has an add-on that you can use to block all Stephens Media. Just go to The Firefox homepage and look for add-ons.
It is possible to write an addon for Firefox that could pull the non-advertising content from a website for display. This would allow people to view a site but not allow the site to receive any credit for 'ad views'. The site could still count 'page views', but not impressions, which are the basis for most ad contracts.
BOYCOTT RJ
jaycooke...
LOL!!!
LarryHParker...
Of course you are 100% correct.
The "fix" is simple and FREE.
However, that would put Righthaven's tawdry, lowdown, dirty rotten little arrangement with Shermy on the shelf, and they'd have to come up with another way to blackmail & fleece people out of their dough.
Do you think Steve & Shermy go out to fancy restaurants and have grossly expensive meals and a few coctails each time they "settle" one of these suits to celebrate their "victory"???
Three words for LVRJ: Right Click Protect
Google it. Free script to protect your content.
Guns4Hire - that is excellent advice about the website blocker. Why visit antisocial sites?
What do I search for under the Firefox addons to find the Righthaven media blocker?
Righthaven is wrong.
Looks like Their being Attacked by the Prison Corporation of America, and it's POWERFUL Lobying
potential!
Must increase Crime, to keep America's fastest growing Cottage Idustry....GROWING!!!