Article

2012-04-12 -Lurid Crime Tales-

Review-Journal owner facing $774,000 fee demand in Righthaven case

Attorneys say the owner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal should be required to pay $774,683 in legal fees for what critics call a failed ''shakedown'' copyright infringement lawsuit that threatened the free speech rights of a political website.
We got yer deep pockets right here...
The attorneys represent the Democratic Underground, a website that defeated Righthaven LLC, the R-J's copyright enforcement partner, in one of Righthaven's copyright infringement lawsuits. If attorneys for the Democratic Underground have their way, the family of Arkansas investment banking billionaire Warren Stephens will be paying their fees for two reasons:

They say the Stephens company that owns the R-J, Stephens Media LLC, used Righthaven as a tool to prosecute a frivolous copyright lawsuit against the Democratic Underground.

Even after the Stephens family invested in Righthaven, Righthaven apparently is now broke and can't or won't pay creditors' claims. That would leave Stephens Media on the hook for all of the fees in the Democratic Underground case under the theory it and Righthaven are jointly and severally liable.

"Righthaven and Stephens Media had an improper motivation in the pursuit of this lawsuit and their litigation campaign more generally. They sought to shake down website operators and bloggers for nuisance-value settlements with threats of seizure of their domain name and huge statutory damage awards, regardless of whether those defendants' uses of the works at issue were actually infringing,'' said a filing Tuesday in federal court in Las Vegas seeking recovery of legal fees by Democratic Underground attorneys. ''As to deterrence, an award of fees is necessary to dissuade these parties and others from any similar scheme of shakedown lawsuits threatening staggering statutory damage awards and seizure of websites. Righthaven and Stephens Media pursued these claims such that numerous instances of legitimate fair use, like that here, would necessarily be dragged into their litigation machine."

Posted by Fred 2012-04-12 08:32|| || Front Page|| [11134 views ] Top

#1 It must be opposite day. I'm rooting for the DU.

Posted by DarthVader 2012-04-12 11:48|| 2012-04-12 11:48|| Front Page Top

#2 Logically going up the food chain for the deep pockets.

Posted by Alaska Paul 2012-04-12 13:08|| 2012-04-12 13:08|| Front Page Top

#3 As best I can tell from following the news, up to this point the RightHaven trolls have paid ZERO while inflicting considerable expenses on everyone else involved.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-04-12 13:22|| 2012-04-12 13:22|| Front Page Top

#4 get the money from Stephens. Then Stephens will have to sue RH to try and get their money back. They had a crooked alliance, they should be held jointly liable

Posted by Frank G 2012-04-12 14:54|| 2012-04-12 14:54|| Front Page Top

#5 Heart. Cockles. Warm. :-D

Posted by Barbara 2012-04-12 17:07|| 2012-04-12 17:07|| Front Page Top

#6 Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Posted by JohnQC 2012-04-12 19:48|| 2012-04-12 19:48|| Front Page Top

22:57 Besoeker
20:07 Hellfish
18:35 Elmerert Hupens2660
18:05 NN2N1
18:04 Difar Dave
16:15 Angstrom
16:10 Angstrom
15:49 Besoeker
15:38 Grom the Affective
15:34 James
15:30 James
15:24 The Walking Unvaxed
15:12 The Walking Unvaxed
14:57 Regular joe
14:45 trailing wife
14:24 NoMoreBS
14:19 NoMoreBS
14:16 NoMoreBS
14:13 NoMoreBS
14:13 trailing wife
14:03 trailing wife
13:46 Elmerert Hupens2660
13:44 NN2N1
13:19 Besoeker