Righthaven CEO, Plus Two Former Righthaven Lawyers, Being Investigated By Nevada State Bar
from the hits-just-keep-on-coming dept
It appears that the Nevada State Bar has decided that some of the complaints against Righthaven that were filed over the past couple of years are worthy of a more detailed investigation. The bar has initiated an inquiry against Righthaven CEO Steve Gibson, as well as two of Righthaven's former lawyers, specifically regarding Righthaven. According to Vegas Inc.:Phil Pattee, assistant Bar counsel, said the agency couldn’t disclose the nature of the grievances against the attorneys or whether they relate to complaints from outside parties or the Bar’s own review of the Righthaven cases or both. But he confirmed the grievances relate to the attorneys’ work for Righthaven.One other interesting tidbit in the article: apparently Gibson has a new job -- back to working as a lawyer, now in the Las Vegas office of Detroit-based law firm, Dickinson Wright.
“We’ll be asking them about Righthaven,” he said.
Gibson, not surprisingly, is outwardly confident that this inquiry is not a big deal:
“I will be responding to the informational requests of the Bar and believe that after such responses and clarifications, the matter will be properly addressed. Miss Lowry indicates her concurrence,” Gibson said Thursday.Of course, this is the same Steve Gibson who insisted that the courts believed in Righthaven and believed the company was "genuine," but were just pushing back to "give some guidance" for Righthaven competitors. Of course, in both cases he may turn out to be right. It's just that the "matter may be properly addressed" in a manner that Gibson does not like. And, as for "guidance," it appears that the guidance the courts were giving Righthaven competitors could be summed up as "don't do anything that Righthaven has been doing."
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: investigation, nevada, state bar, steve gibson
Companies: righthaven
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
If A happens you write about A, if B happens .... you get the idea.
That said tho, i really don't mind the Righthaven news, just as i really didn't mind the ACS Law news back when that whole mess broke.
CopyTrolls getting what they have coming is almost worthy of firing up a cigar.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Human vs Alien
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Human vs Alien
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Human vs Alien
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Human vs Alien
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Response to: 6 on Jan 13th, 2012 @ 2:42pm
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Righthaven will be held up as an example for all to see - why would you desire anything less?
Seriously, why do you request such leniency? Certainly Righthaven would have shown no mercy had they prevailed in their power lust adventure and in fact they were quite happy collecting the ill-gotten gains from their extortion racket.
No! - they should be hoisted upon their own petard
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Who on earth would hire Steve Gibson?
Who on earth would hire Steve Gibson after the entire Righthaven debacle, the frivolous emergency appeals, the apparent constant contempt of court, the missed deadlines, the abandonment of cases in process, and the sanctions against Righthaven?
It seems to me that just hiring Gibson to work for you is defacto malpractice. :-o Why anyone would do that is beyond me.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Who on earth would hire Steve Gibson?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Righthaven needs to watch this new documentary :)
Watch this documentary to know the truth!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNY2S0fgrfs
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
How strange...no mention of Righthaven in his CV...
"Experience
* Mr. Gibson has nearly twenty years of experience which includes practicing in Japan and at an International Chicago-based law firm. "
What? No mention of his groundbreaking stint as CEO of "America's premier Copyright enforcer" (or how ever they said that...) And no mention of Righthaven being sanctioned for misrepresentation to the courts? Nor of the 275 cases filed by Righthaven that seem as though every single one that will be decided by a court will be lost?
And, the CV brags about Gibson's contract writing experience, but makes no mention of the contract he was involved with at Righthaven where the true nature was concealed from the courts by splitting the copyright assignments secretly in an overriding agreement with Stephens Media that took back the bald copyright assignments shown to the courts and recast them as apparent sham copyright assignments, which when finally examined in total were found to be that Righthaven lacked even standing to sue in multiple venues? Really? No mention of that?
I'm really wondering what info Gibson has in his safe to get someone to hire him to work as a lawyer...I'm definately not saying he's blackmailing anyone, but who would hire him on his merits after his inexcusable conduct in the Righthaven debacle? I hope Mike will ask the law firm for comment.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: How strange...no mention of Righthaven in his CV...
Lying on your resume/application is grounds for termination in the Low Job Market.
Lying is a prerequisite in the High Job Market.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Also I was rather sad when I heard about his new job. With the RIAA talking about backing him, I was rather hoping they would eventually hire him as their chief counsel.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Let justice be served.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Obviously the rest of their employees must be piss-poor at their jobs if THIS is what they have to do to drum up trade.....
Either that or they plan to "fire" Gibson to try and make themselves look good (obviously planned ahead of time with a nice payoff to Gibson to go along with it).
Either that or Gibson will truly turn out to be a messiah in disguise as he takes down ANOTHER big law firm/IP conglomerate.
After all, he's killed Stephens Media (check the hilarious state of their finances/shares and secret cashflow issues these days!) and a few others, one more wouldn't go amiss......
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]