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Righthaven Files Emergency Motion To Try To Keep Its Assets

from the that's-not-going-to-work dept

Fri, Dec 30th 2011 3:30pm — Mike Masnick

Looks like Righthaven has finally reappeared... filing an "emergency motion" in the 9th Circuit appeals court trying to prevent Marc Randazza from continuing to move forward in the Hoehn case, where (as you may have heard) Righthaven has been ordered to hand over various assets (and the company's righthaven.com domain is being auctioned off). Randazza has filed a response (embedded below) in which he goes back to bringing up Herman Melville's classic story Bartleby the Scrivener, in which Bartleby never does any work because "I would prefer not to." If that sounds familiar, it may be because Randazza used that line the last time Righthaven filed for an "emergency" stay in the same 9th Circuit Appeals Court... in the same case. That time the court rejected it, and as Randazza explains, there are tons of reasons to reject it again. You can read the entire filing explaining all the reasons that Righthaven's emergency filing makes no sense -- especially since it failed to bother to oppose many of the things it's now fighting when they were happening in the district court. However, the key reason is simply procedural:

While it would be far more satisfying to see this motion defeated on substantive grounds, it fails cleanly as a matter of procedure. Rule 27-3(a) requires the movant�s counsel to make "every practicable effort" to notify opposing counsel before filing an Emergency Motion. Righthaven�s counsel failed to do so, and misled this Court about his efforts to do so. Hoehn�s counsel first learned of the Motion by receiving it through the Court�s cm/ecf system .... Only after receiving the Motion did Hoehn's counsel receive a fax from Righthaven's counsel notifying them of its intent to file this Motion

I used to think that Righthaven might make a useful law school case study some day, but now I'm wondering if there shouldn't be an entire class studying Righthaven in order to teach lawyers exactly what not to do in handling cases.

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Filed Under: hoehn, marc randazza, righthaven
Companies: righthaven

20 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 30 Dec 2011 @ 3:38pm

"Righthaven Files Emergency Motion To Try To Keep Its Assets"

Is it going to show up to court this time ...
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- Anonymous Coward, 30 Dec 2011 @ 3:41pm
  
  Re:
  I dunno, actually *going* to court seems like a lot of work...
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- DannyB (profile), 31 Dec 2011 @ 7:11am
  
  Re:
  > Is it going to show up to court this time ...
  
  They would prefer not to do so.
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Andrew F (profile), 30 Dec 2011 @ 3:42pm

I used to think that Righthaven might make a useful law school case study some day, but now I'm wondering if there shouldn't be an entire class studying Righthaven in order to teach lawyers exactly what not to do in handling cases.

You could probably build a legal ethics course around Righthaven.
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- Bengie, 30 Dec 2011 @ 4:45pm
  
  Re:
  You could probably build a legal ethics course Copyright
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Dec 2011 @ 4:02pm

I would help establish an entire class...
But I would probably have to show up and do something which would not be in the spirit of the course....
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Anonymous Coward, 30 Dec 2011 @ 4:34pm

Your all freetards and thieves
your free ride on the back of content owners is over. __________________________________________________________
added sep 14/10.
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- Anonymous Coward, 30 Dec 2011 @ 4:36pm
  
  Re: Your all freetards and thieves
  stupid pirate Mike and his pirate blog. it broke my copy paste form
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  - Atkray (profile), 30 Dec 2011 @ 9:32pm
    
    Re: Re: Your all freetards and thieves
    O_O
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- The Mighty Buzzard (profile), 30 Dec 2011 @ 11:43pm
  
  Re: Your all freetards and thieves
  Wait, are we talking about Mike here or lawyers?
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FormerAC (profile), 30 Dec 2011 @ 4:57pm

Law school case study?
I used to think that Righthaven might make a useful law school case study some day, but now I'm wondering if there shouldn't be an entire class studying Righthaven in order to teach lawyers exactly what not to do in handling cases.

The lawyers still got paid, right? This may indeed be a case study in law school, but only as an example of the stupid shit you can get paid to do as a successful lawyer.
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- Anonymous Coward, 30 Dec 2011 @ 6:21pm
  
  Re: Law school case study?
  There was a successful lawyer at Righthaven? They kept that one quiet.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 31 Dec 2011 @ 8:37am
    
    Re: Re: Law school case study?
    Lawyers don't have to be successful to get paid.
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Hephaestus (profile), 30 Dec 2011 @ 7:58pm

How much do you want to bet they forget to show up in court to argue this.
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Hephaestus (profile), 30 Dec 2011 @ 8:01pm

Good lord, these guys should hire some attorneys that didn't go to night school.
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Hephaestus (profile), 30 Dec 2011 @ 8:03pm

Now I know where these "falling off a cliff, 2 seats empty on a bus full of lawyers" jokes come from ...
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M.Shere, 30 Dec 2011 @ 10:01pm

Righthaven: The Movie.

...or mini-series.
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Violated (profile), 31 Dec 2011 @ 12:29am

Karma
This is like a slow motion train wreck.

Always a happy day when a Copyright Troll meets their fate set by Karma. A money making get-rich-quick scheme ending in bankruptcy seems Karma enough.

You would think a lawyer would know and follow the law better than your average Joe but arrogance always seems to fail them.

So one more on the way out and plenty more to follow.
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- Dementia (profile), 31 Dec 2011 @ 12:24pm
  
  Re: Karma
  but, but, but......Average Joe is a law student.....right?
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Rekrul, 31 Dec 2011 @ 4:25am

I know they'll never admit it publicly, but in private, do you think Righthaven's execs regret ever trying to sue, or are they still deluded enough to think that they were in the right?
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