Righthaven Sues Senate Candidate Sharron Angle

from the copyrighter-in-training? dept

Tue, Sep 7th 2010 8:06am — Mike Masnick

After Righthaven kicked off its mass lawsuits against various websites for reposting some parts of Las Vegas Review Journal articles, some folks wondered if Righthaven would sue US Senate candidate Sharron Angle, since she appeared to be reposting parts of some LVRJ stories on the campaign website. And, it took a little while, but late last week, Sharron Angle was, in fact, sued for copyright infringement over posting those LVRJ articles. Apparently, with Angle, Righthaven is claiming two separate copyrights, and demanding $150,000 -- twice its normal request for $75,000.

Of course, what's really ironic here is that Sharron Angle is the candidate we talked about back in July -- claiming copyright infringement by Senator Harry Reid, who she's challenging in the election, after Reid set up a clone site of Angle's old website, which had some content Angle wanted to distance herself from. And when confronted on this issue, Angle insisted she would sue, though as far as I can tell, no lawsuit was ever actually filed.

So, it's not as if Angle is any sort of champion for smarter copyright lawsuits. I've seen some people think that, because of this lawsuit by Righthaven, if she gets elected, perhaps she'll speak up for better copyright laws, but that seems unlikely. Still, it is somewhat ironic that she was claiming copyright infringement by Reid, while at the very same time, taking chunks of the LVRJ -- especially since Righthaven's lawsuits were already ongoing at that point. I would imagine that Angle's words at the time might come back to haunt her here:

"Well your website is like you, it's your intellectual property," Angle said. "So they can't use something that's yours, intellectual property, unless they pay you for it or get your permission... And he didn't ask me for it, and he didn't pay me for it."

Still, with a lawsuit against someone so high profile, perhaps it will get more people paying attention to just how ridiculous Righthaven's lawsuits have become.

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Filed Under: copyright, sharron angle
Companies: las vegas review journal, righthaven, stephens media

11 Comments

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Steve R. (profile), 7 Sep 2010 @ 8:38am

Arrogance of Power
Seems that our elected officials don't comprehend that the laws they pass also apply to them.

Yet another example of how copyright/patent law have become so convoluted that these laws are impossible to apply and therefore lose all meaning.
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Berenerd (profile), 7 Sep 2010 @ 8:39am

And if you believe that...
"Still, with a lawsuit against someone so high profile, perhaps it will get more people paying attention to just how ridiculous Righthaven's lawsuits have become. "

...Then I got a bridge to sell you...
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Sep 2010 @ 9:06am

Politicians will just carve out a "exception" for themselves as they are all self-serving, wanna bet that they already have a law proposal somewhere.
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Anon, 7 Sep 2010 @ 9:07am

I'm really starting to think...
...that Righthaven is trying to get publicity directed at just how stupid the state of copyright law is.
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Anon, 7 Sep 2010 @ 9:08am

I'm really starting to think...
...that Righthaven is trying to get publicity directed at just how stupid the state of copyright law is.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 Sep 2010 @ 9:29am

Vultures is what they are.
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Jay (profile), 7 Sep 2010 @ 9:38am

I find it hilarious. Maybe there's something in the water in Nevada that brings out the crazy in people.
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NAMELESS.ONE, 7 Sep 2010 @ 10:02am

about a website
"Well your website is like you, it's your intellectual property," Angle said.

NO , it is you correct but you have the right to cut off the public form past the front page. I believe that if you want to use anything in part off a main page you should have the right especially when it is information based that human kind should know. It is after all a publication and unless your charging a paywall and just show a login and pass , it should be fair game. BLATANTLY copying and making a duplicate of the entire site is different ball a wax and again if your doing a parody i see no issue.

Even a whole copy people will ask where is the original, so you get FREE ADVERTISING.

this article is about lawyers and morons in a circle jerk sue off. Regular normal people do not act this way nor do they SUE or threaten to sue at every chance.
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zegota (profile), 7 Sep 2010 @ 10:25am

HA!
"I've seen some people think that, because of this lawsuit by Righthaven, if she gets elected, perhaps she'll speak up for better copyright laws..."

AHAHAHAHA! Ahaha! Oh man! That's good!

Seriously though, do you have a link to these "some people," cause anyone who knows anything about Angle, and politicians in general, knows that is insane.
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The eejit (profile), 8 Sep 2010 @ 9:57am

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Yeah, I can't see a loser here, between Righthaven's lolworthy attempt to extort, and Angle's "appeal" to Far Right extremists, I'm finding it hard to root for anyone here.
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Gregg L. DesElms (profile), 8 Sep 2010 @ 9:07pm

Fair use, anyone?
It sounds like the candidate only used parts of LVRJ's content, no?

If so, then why isn't "fair use" anywhere in the discussion? Did her use of just parts of LVRJ content constitute "fair use?"

If so, then the candidate should let it go to trial and send out a message of her own.

_____________________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
Napa, California USA
gregg at greggdeselms dot com
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