US Marshal Service Told To Go After Righthaven's Assets

from the is-it-over-yet? dept

Wed, Nov 2nd 2011 6:44am — Mike Masnick

The saga of Righthaven continues... and may finally be nearing a close. With Righthaven failing to get a court to change the requirement to put up a bond for the $34k it owes in legal fees for its bogus lawsuit against Wayne Hoehn, the deadline for Righthaven to pay up (or post such a bond) has passed. As such, it appears that the court has now signed off on a writ of execution for the US Marshal Service to seek to get from Righthaven the money owed, including additional accrued costs to make the total at stake: $63,720.80. In fact, they're "authorized to use reasonable force in the execution of this Judgment/Order." It seems that missing deadlines for filings may be the least of Righthaven's problems at this point.

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Filed Under: assets, hoehn, righthaven, us marshal service
Companies: righthaven

42 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 6:46am

That's not how you spell asses
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DannyB (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 6:48am

The US Marshals are comming !
> The paper's publisher, Sherman Frederick, likewise
> warned readers: "I'm asking you nicely once again -
> don't steal our content. Or, I promise you,
> you will meet my little friend called Righthaven."

Wayne Hoehn's represtnation, Randazza legal group, likewise
warned RightHaven: "I'm asking you nicely once again
to pay your court judgement. Or, I promise you,
you will meet my little friend called the US Marshals.

Advice for Righthaven:: when you're an a-hole, stop digging!
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Anonymous Troll, 2 Nov 2011 @ 6:55am

Given Righthaven's idiotic and illegal actions, I recommend unreasonable force, such as SWAT teams raiding to seize computers, assets, and that cute blonde in HR.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 7:00am

This is a greek tragedy in the making. One way to recoup money from this, also generate some nice content.

"Righthaven - The movie" a satire of a legal company out of its depth in the merky waters of the law.

Not sure who would star.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 7:02am

Re:
Brenden Fraiser
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WDS (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 7:06am

Judgement Proof
It is obvious that Righthaven thinks that they are judgement proof. I hope the jerks behind it find out that they were wrong.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 7:11am

Guidance
The US Marshal Service is just trying to give them guid....you know what? Never mind. They're screwed.
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Peter, 2 Nov 2011 @ 7:12am

Assets
Any bets that there are no assets left to seize.
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Prisoner 201, 2 Nov 2011 @ 7:25am

Re:
Shame on you for causing a ruckus on my workplace. Now my coworkers think I am either not working or that I have gone insane.
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DannyB (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 7:28am

Re:
> This is a greek tragedy in the making.

Correction. It was a geek tragedy. Now it's a geek comedy.
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DannyB (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 7:31am

Re: Assets
I hope this is true. It hope the reason is that they've done something underhanded, brazenly obvious, and not until after the judgement was entered, to try to protect their asse(t)s by transferring them to Stephens Media and/or the individual personal accounts of those responsible for this farce of a protection racket.

Advice for Righthaven: next time you want to set up a protection racket, go ask the professionals, the Mafia, how it is done.
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The Groove Tiger (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 7:38am

Re:
John Travolta.

They can call it A Civil Action 2: Righthaven's Revenge.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 7:40am

The offices were probably cleaned out days or weeks ago. Next stop, bankruptcy court.
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Nathan F (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 7:41am

Re: Re:
We have a place for you at my workplace in one of the padded rooms :)
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 7:44am

Wake me up when the Marshalls show up at their homes and take away their personal stuff. Not going to happen, you say? Well there you go then, proof that this whole thing is just smoke and mirrors to reassure the public that "the system works".

And even if these clowns get actually punished in some way, they're still just sacrificial lambs. Bigger organizations like the RIAA can get away with the same tactics and worse. Yawn.
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PaxSkeptica, 2 Nov 2011 @ 7:55am

Re: Re: [Not sure who would star...]
I'd authorize the use of unreasonable force against Brendan Fraser.
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DannyB (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 8:11am

Re:
High court vs Low court.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 8:15am

Re: Re:
"Correction. It was a geek tragedy. Now it's a geek comedy."

Ba....Bazinga?
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 8:20am

Re: Assets
First one to get the righthaven.com domain name wins.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 8:25am

Re:
I think it would be wrong to pierce the corporate veil here unless they can find some really damaging evidence that Righthaven had paid stevens media all its money thusfar.
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BentFranklin (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 8:27am

Pierce the veil!
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The eejit (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 8:28am

Re:
Ben Kingsley as the EVIL JUDGE COX, Richard Gambon as the doddering yet kindly pawn Gibson, Brad Pitt as Mangano, Tom Hanks as Hoehn, and Kermit the frog as the US Marshal.
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The eejit (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 8:30am

Re: Re:
Which would open up Stephens Media up to fraud, extortion and racketeering charges, and that means everyone at the top.

You literally cannot make this shit up, if that's true. If this was a satire, it would be too unrealistic.
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Anonymous Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 8:44am

Re:
I hope they think to take the local TV station's news crews along with them. The video would be priceless, er amusing (don't want anyone thinking this might be 'valuable' IP).
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lucidrenegade (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 8:51am

*In fact, they're "authorized to use reasonable force in the execution of this Judgment/Order."*

Really too bad somebody didn't accidentally change 'reasonable' to 'deadly'.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 8:59am

Copyrights are assets!
So does that mean that the US Marshalls can seize the copyrights that were transferred to Righthaven under the "newly modified" agreement?
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 9:00am

Re: Re: Re:
Get out of my sofa.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 9:02am

"they're "authorized to use reasonable force in the execution of this Judgment/Order."

Well if they were running a torrent site that would mean a fully armed swat team kicking in their door. Hopefully they thought of something better for these guys
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 9:15am

Re: Re:
I agree with most of those, but would prefer to see Sylvester Stallone play a judge again.....
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hothmonster, 2 Nov 2011 @ 9:16am

Re:
"Righthaven - The movie" a satire of a legal company out of its depth in the merky waters of the law. "

That pitch sounds more like a sitcom. Except, of course, the "The Movie" part.
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jayhawkeye2 (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 9:17am

Dibs on Gibson's Bluetooth!!!
That's gotta have some value?
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 9:49am

Where are all the IP trolls proclaiming that Righthaven is right here? Where did they all go? They got this wrong too, just like they get most everything else wrong. Then they expect us to take them seriously.
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Jay (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 9:53am

Man, I didn't know how right my poem would be. It's like watching slow motion train wreck. Righthaven just can't get it right...
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DannyB (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 10:29am

Re: Re: Assets
First one to get the Stephens Media copyrights, that were supposedly transferred to Righthaven via its amended New(tm) and Improved(tm) contract, really wins.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 10:41am

Hmmm...methinks that even if you rip out all the copper pipes and wiring in their empty front offices, the US Marshals will not get anywhere close to $34K. I really hope they follow the paper trails as it was clear that Righthaven's delays were just buying time to get their assets moved so there will be nothing left to liquidate.
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DannyB (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 10:54am

If Stephens Media shares a 50 % stake in the proceeds . . .
If Stephens Media shares a 50 % stake in the proceeds of Righthaven, then shouldn't they also share 50 % of the stake through the heart?
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Beta (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 11:13am

the sound of haunting laughter
I'd like to see video of the seizure, just on the off chance that when the marshals kick in the office door and march through they'll find themselves in the parking lot, while all the the Righthaven letterhead documents dissolve into smoke, Mangano's arms come off when they try to handcuff him and he collapses into a small heap of second-hand clothing and twigs, the other Righthaven staff are revealed to be merely painted on the wall--

No, on second thought I don't think I'd like to see the video; it can't possibly live up to my expectations.
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Manabi (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 11:27am

Re:
To be fair, even most of the ardent IP trolls disliked Righthaven. Righthaven has proven time and time again that they were, at best, clueless idiots who were making utter fools of themselves and their whole legal "strategy". They've been an embarrassment to supporters of stronger IP laws (and lawyers) everywhere. I doubt anyone is going to miss them.
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DogBreath, 2 Nov 2011 @ 11:56am

Re: Re: Re:
We can always use our imagination, but I bet it would go down just like this:

U.S Marshal "Judge Dredd" coming to seize Righthaven assets

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itmNiTwHOsM

I wonder if using a Lawgiver on Righthaven would be considered "reasonable force"?
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 12:40pm

Re: Re: Re:
I saw some pictures of the new Judge and it looks dreadful.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Nov 2011 @ 1:40pm

Re: Re:
Don't worry, I'm sure AJ will show up soon to proclaim that everyone is wrong and Righthaven is just getting a bad deal.
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ken (profile), 2 Nov 2011 @ 5:11pm

Re: The US Marshals are comming !
Water-boarding sounds reasonable to me.
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