Righthaven Update: Still Crashing and Burning

Eric Goldman has an update on the Righthaven litigation in the last two weeks.

Judge Pro, another U.S. District Court Judge in Nevada has entered another ruling finding that Righthaven lacks standing and that the allegedly infinged work is protected by the fair use doctrine despite the fact that the entire newspaper article was reproduced. A lack of market impact was central to the ruling as was the context of the post in a political discussion and the mostly factual nature of the article reproduced. Collectively, the multiple rulings in the Righthaven fair use cases have greatly expanded the pro-blogger interpretations of the doctrine in cases involving newspaper articles. One pundit, at least, however, thinks that the cases are particular to the situation when the alleged copyright owner is suing over infringements that took place before it owned the copyright and involve an owner who isn't in the business of publishing and hence has no marketplace injury from infringement of its copyrights. A real newspaper that owned the copyrights in question at the time that there was an infringement might obtain different fair use rulings.

Fellow Judge Navarro in the same district, allows Righthaven to survive a Rule 12 motion mostly because there has been insufficient discovery in that case regarding discovery at the pleadings stage.

Righthaven faces a counterclaim for racketeering in one of its cases.

Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist and former Publisher Sherman Frederick who has crassly described Righthaven in a way that implies it is a mafia enforcer is being sued personally in a South Carolina state court suit, that also has named the Denver Post in claims including one related to code inserted when one copies text from its site, and has requested a pre-judgment writ of attachment to freeze Righthaven's assets.

Righthaven's attorney fee requests have also been treated skeptically.

A pro se party who have settled has asked a judge to set aside the settlement and make an award against Righthaven.

In sum, according to Goldman, "Righthaven's business is in tatters.", monetary sanctions are imminent, professional conduct investigations are ongoing, they are experiencing staff turnover, they have alienated a lot of judges, and they have made their business unattractive to future and renewing clients. Goldman characterizes efforts to overturn these rulings in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals as a "hail mary" attempt.