Suing Your Readers for Spite and Profit - Righthaven

[RamboLiberal]

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According to court records, about 60 of these cases, or roughly one third, have been resolved. If the NORML and Odds on Racing case settlements are representative, Righthaven will have only raked in some $215,000 over the past year. Minus court filing fees this amount drops to $162,000—not much to cover a staff of 10 and other operating costs, including the purchase of copyrights from Stephens Media.

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EFF’s Opsahl says that Democratic Underground will assert several of these defenses, including the doctrine of de minimis non curat lex—roughly translated, “the law doesn’t care about trivia.” DU and EFF have already filed a counterclaim against Righthaven for what they allege is essentially a frivolous suit.

On May 13, a user posted a five-sentence excerpt of a LVRJ article, “Tea Party Fuels Angle,” on a DU discussion board dedicated to “breaking news.” The excerpt included a link to the original article, published the same day on the LVRJ website.

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According to Opsahl, the “fair use doctrine” applies to the DU instance—and many other cases—of infringement alleged by Righthaven, in that the alleged infringement meets all of the criteria laid out for “fair use” under copyright law: a non-commercial, non-profit educational purpose and character of use; the nonfictional nature of the copyrighted work; the proportion of the original work used; and the minimal effect on the original’s market value.

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=4199

[myrna minx]

1. K&R n/t