Yet Another Judge Rejects Yet Another Righthaven Case

from the and-another-one-down dept

Another day and another loss for Righthaven, as yet another judge (this makes four) says that Righthaven has no standing to bring the suit, because it did not technically hold the copyright, since its agreement with Stephens Media only really transferred the right to sue, rather than any of the listed rights under the Copyright Act. This time it's judge James Mahan, adding to judges Kent Dawson, Roger Hunt and Philip Pro, who have all come to the same conclusion. Mahan, of course, got some attention earlier this year when he was the first to rule in a Righthaven case that reposting a full article could still be fair use. Mahan also rejected Righthaven's attempt to claim that its newly amended agreement with Stephens Media should allow the case to continue, noting that the company wants to change the facts of the case in doing so.

That said, Mahan refused to make the dismissal of the case "with prejudice," meaning that Righthaven can (and probably will) refile the lawsuit, using the newly amended agreement to claim standing. Until there are conclusive rulings on that amended agreement, we may have to go through this whole process a few more times before some judge finally tells Righthaven to give up.
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Filed Under: copyright, righthaven, standing
Companies: righthaven, stephens media


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  • identicon
    Prisoner 201, 29 Jul 2011 @ 3:00pm

    Where is the world coming to when you can no longer extort those of lesser means? Soon we in the nobility will have to do actual work like some common pleb. Shocking. Someone should buy som legislation about that.

    Djambi, the chocolate icing! Oh-ahahah!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Lauriel (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 3:42pm

    Where is the world coming to when you can no longer extort those of lesser means? Soon we in the nobility will have to do actual work like some common pleb. Shocking. Someone should buy som legislation about that.

    Unfortunately that is not what has happened. I would love one of the judges to slam it as being extortion, or more outcomes like Mahan's fair use ruling, that put some decent restrictions on these types of cases into case law. While losing cases on legal technicalities is preferable to them winning, it doesn't leave any rulings on the actual nature of such cases, or on the copyright laws themselves, as precedent.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Atkray (profile), 29 Jul 2011 @ 10:48pm

      Re:

      Fortunately it seems that Righthaven is bound and determined to keep at this until there are some rulings against them that well serve as case law.

      *makes popcorn*

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mr Big Content, 29 Jul 2011 @ 11:53pm

    With Every Rejection, The Quality Of The Remaining Cases Goes Up

    These hostile judges are really doing Righthaven a favor. Once all the easy cases are knocked off, the remaining ones will be downright unassailable and watertight. Time for their opponents to start to worry. Smackdown is at hand!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      abc gum, 30 Jul 2011 @ 8:11am

      Re: With Every Rejection, The Quality Of The Remaining Cases Goes Up

      "Once all the easy cases are knocked off, the remaining ones will be downright unassailable and watertight"

      Examples?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        The eejit (profile), 30 Jul 2011 @ 9:35am

        Re: Re: With Every Rejection, The Quality Of The Remaining Cases Goes Up

        You're not familiar with Mr. Big Content, are you? He's out-trolling the trolls we sometimes get round here. :)

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          abc gum, 30 Jul 2011 @ 2:23pm

          Re: Re: Re: With Every Rejection, The Quality Of The Remaining Cases Goes Up

          It is difficult at times to ascertain

          link to this | view in chronology ]


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