Righthaven Goes Down Hard..

[HipChick]

Thanks to DU!

Mods - Please remove if there is any issue with this being posted.


http://bloglawblog.com/blog/?p=3048

http://hothardware.com/News/Federal-Judge-Kicks-Patent-Troll-Righthaven-to-the-Curb/

[malaise]

1. Get thee to the greatest page

DU is the greatest

[csziggy]

2. K&R

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. kudos to DU's legal eagles. They soared high here.

[leveymg]

4. Judge found that Righthaven and its arrangement with Stephens is "a sham." IOW - a criminal fraud

If you're a litigant and the Judge uses the word "sham" to describe you, it's basically a death sentence in civil litigation. It also raises the possibility of civil and criminal fraud charges against that party.

Further action against both Righthaven and Stephens, and others who employ the same business model?

[Overseas]

5. K&R.

[Eugene]

6. K&R nt

[Sheepshank]

7. they misrepresented, lied and misled.

Not a good combo to find oneself in when facing a judge and getting caught doing so.

ok...their reputation is now publically established. The company they attempted to buy litigation copyrights from is carrying a bit of that stain too.

[Howler]

8. K&R

So does this mean The other bloggers and websites that were sued by Righthaven and paid them off can now sue Righthaven to get their money back? Can these bloggers also sue righthaven for legal fees and pain and distress?

[gratuitous]

11. Probably not

If they settled and paid off Righthaven, they almost certainly signed some kind of an agreement that allows Righthaven to keep the settlement. It would probably require a settling party to file a separate action against Righthaven to recover the settlement payment, and it appears that Righthaven is not going to be in a financial position to pay anyone anything.

I would also guess that most of the folks rolled by Righthaven will be anxious to put the matter behind them, and won't be nearly as petty, vindictive, penurious and mean-spirited as Righthaven and its principals. Lucky for Righthaven. Although, if there were any insurance companies that are feeling particularly burned by paying out bogus settlements to Righthaven, they just might be that mean. Which would be too bad for Righthaven, but it would serve them right.

[ThoughtCriminal]

12. I think they could

"Righthaven led the district judges of this district to believe that it was the true owner of the copyright in the relevant news articles... Making this failure more egregious, not only did Righthaven fail to identify Stephens Media as an interested party... the Court believes that Righthaven failed to disclose Stephens Media as an interested party in any of its approximately 200 cases filed in this district..."

I think that would give any parties pretty good cause to recover settlements and costs.

[Howler]

15. I really hope so. n/t

n/t

[Howler]

14. Damn.

I don't think it would be petty to recoup money that was .....well....stolen really.

[sabrina 1]

9. K&R

Thanks to DU for fighting them. This is truly great news.

[Dappleganger]

10. Ding! Fries are done.

[lonestarnot]

21. OMG

You are bad!

[RamboLiberal]

13. As Judge Considers Righthaven Sanctions, Bloggers Who Settled Mull Options

A federal judge’s ruling that a copyright troll had no standing to sue for copyright violations has bloggers who already settled lawsuits mulling their next step.

-----

Marc Randazza, a Miami lawyer who represented about a dozen Righthaven defendants who settled, mentioned the idea of a class action in a phone interview with Threat Level. He said he was discussing the situation with his clients.

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/as_judge_considers_righthaven_sanctions_bloggers_who_settled_mull_options/

Free Republic was one of those who caved and paid Righthaven.

[Howler]

17. YAY!!!!

Thank you RamboLiberal! :)

[EFerrari]

16. Lovin' it!

:woohoo:

[LiberalAndProud]

18. "It is a total victory for defendant Democratic Underground"

Nice! Well done, Skinner.

[sakabatou]

19. Hey Righthaven!

[lonestarnot]

20. Rich! I am for a humonguous DU party!

:party:

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. Copyright Nazis crushed by a liberal website. What's not to love?

:woohoo:

[phleshdef]

23. A good number of Freepers are actually somewhat applauding DU on this.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2734761/posts

To: redreno
Thank you for the ping. It’s weird to be siding with DU on something but I hope they kick Righthaven’s ass.

To: redreno
That is fantastic! Grats DU! That’s a win for everyone these scum sucking lawyers went after.

To: KarlInOhio
We may not like them or what they have to say, but they still have a right to say it. It’s preposterous for somebody to think that online articles won’t be linked to and quoted by many other people.

To: KarlInOhio
At least it sets a precedent.

Who knows. If had been FR first, we might have lost.

For that reason, I guess I can live with DU winning this one.

Righthaven needed to be stopped.

To: metmom
“...DU winning this one.”

DU isn’t the only winner....freedom is, too.

For that reason, we all win

To: Domandred
Grats DU!
Not what one usually sees around here but bad cases make tough bedfellows (or something).

Of course then there are gems like this!

It’s weird to be siding with DU on something
Think of it as supporting the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) instead. DU is just a poster child for the concerns of the community at large. To get the job done, EFF needed to represent a naughty victim with credibility in the liberal community. But the position they take is very conservative and could well be a spark of enlightenment for some ( that standing to sue can't be auctioned off to the highest bidder, that copyright has limits, etc).

However, EFF is not a conservative organization. EFF represents a liberal perspective descended from the kind of liberalism embodied in the founding of this nation. It's just not a faux liberalism filtered through a pile of stinking socialist statist agendas...

I have no clue what that means.

[DeSwiss]

24. Ha-ha!

http://hothardware.com/News/Federal-Judge-Kicks-Patent-Troll-Righthaven-to-the-Curb/">
Artist's depiction of Righthaven CEO


:P - K&R!!!

[KT2000]

25. Thank you DU!

You guys stood up to these thieves and you WON! Big!!!
Hope you celebrated because this is big.

[Quantess]

26. Well, that's good news.

:thumbsup:

[aquart]

27. The occasional real justice brightens my whole day.

[Enthusiast]

28. K&R! nt

[SidDithers]

29. Awesome...

Way to go DU & EFF!

And I love it that Drudge was one of the sites that settled with these clowns, while DU stood up and fought.


Sid

[sendero]

30. It's s0 rare and pleasant..

... for right to win over might. Congratulations to DU and kudos for deciding to fight these bastards.

[myrna minx]

31. I missed this yesterday. This is excellent news! n/t