Raw Story is among Righthaven's latest targets

[Newsjock]

Source: Las Vegas Sun

Website operators and commentators are expressing surprise and skepticism about the latest batch of copyright infringement lawsuits filed by Righthaven LLC of Las Vegas, all over the same Denver Post "enhanced TSA pat-down" photo.

... At Techdirt.com, commentator Mike Masnick wrote that one of the Righthaven TSA photo defendants, Pajamas Media, may have a strong fair use defense.

"This isn't a case of someone just grabbing a photo to illustrate a story. Instead, the opening paragraphs -- which clearly identify and link to the Denver Post as the source of the image -- are about how this image has 'become the symbol' of the 'Don't touch my junk' movement. It would seem that this gives Pajamas a really strong fair use claim, since the image was being used within a news report for commentary on the iconic nature of the image," Masnick said in his blog post.

The latest website operators and associated parties to be sued by Righthaven over the photo are:

... --Raw Story Media Inc., John Byrne and Eric W. Dolan (rawstory.com)

Read more: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/feb/08/new-round-righthaven-suits-over-tsa-pat-down-photo/

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. Righthaven's client list should face the wrath of the Intertubes

Maybe the Denver Post's advertisers might not support this harrassment of web sites by their lawyers.

[RamboLiberal]

2. Also after David Duke, Pajamas Media, Drudge

Defendants sued over the photo include high-profile website operator Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report and white supremacist David Duke. Neither has answered the copyright infringement allegations against them.

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A problem with the TSA photo lawsuits, one law professor says, is that many of the website operators and message-board posters who posted the photo probably had no idea where it came from.

"What’s new – and troubling – with these latest lawsuits is that the people being sued may have had no idea that the photo they were using originated with the Denver Post. Since the photo went viral, it’s showed up in Google image search results disconnected from the Denver Post," Eric E. Johnson of the University of North Dakota School of Law wrote on his blog.

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Righthaven watchers, in the meantime, are waiting for Nevada federal judges to issue what could be key rulings on fair-use defenses in older copyright infringement cases including those involving the Democratic Underground and the Center for Intercultural Organizing.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/feb/08/new-round-righthaven-suits-over-tsa-pat-down-photo/

Link to DU's reply for those of you who can understand all the legalese.

Summary: Democratic Underground -- represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Fenwick & West LLP, and attorney Chad Bowers -- was sued by Righthaven LLC on August 10 for a five-sentence excerpt of a Las Vegas Review-Journal news story that a user posted on the forum, with a link back to the Review-Journal website.

http://www.jdsupra.com/post/documentViewer.aspx?fid=03b5f699-d271-46e4-91a9-9c542bffcbe7