Righthaven So Busy Filing Lawsuits It Forgot To Renew Its Business License?

from the oh-yes,-and-porn dept

Amusing note in a recent Las Vegas Sun report about the latest goings on with copyright troll Righthaven: there are some indications that the company forgot to renew its business license, and that could create some problems for some of its lawsuits:

Has Righthaven been so busy filing and settling lawsuits that it forgot to renew its state business license?

Its status with the Nevada Secretary of State as of Monday was listed as "default" after the license expired Jan. 31. Net Sortie Systems LLC, Las Vegas attorney Steven Gibson's company that co-owns Righthaven, is also listed as in default.

[....]

Righthaven's "default" status will likely interest defendants in nine Righthaven lawsuits filed in Denver federal court this month over a Denver Post "TSA pat-down photo."

That's because Righthaven asserts in these lawsuits: "Righthaven is, and has been at all times relevant to this lawsuit, in good standing with the Nevada Secretary of State."

Separate from that, the report also notes that Righthaven just registered the copyright on some porn DVDs, so it may be expanding beyond copyright trolling for the newspaper business (not that lucrative), and follow the footsteps of a bunch of opportunist lawyers who have started doing mass file sharing pre-settlement shakedown letter campaigns for porn producers (without too much success so far).

Filed Under: business license
Companies: righthaven

Philadelphia Demanding Business License For Bloggers Who Bring In A Bit Of Cash

from the well-isn't-that-nice dept

A whole bunch of you have been sending over this story about how the city of Philadelphia, in its desperate need for cash, is starting to demand that hobby bloggers get a business license if they've made any revenue at all. Not if they've made profit, but revenue. So, any blog that has Google ads and brings in a couple pennies could be required to get a business license. To make matters worse, the city has been relying on the fact that some of these bloggers are honest and reported the tiny bit of revenue they made, in order to send them demand letters that they go register for a business license. Nice way to convince people (a) not to blog and (b) not to bother with Philly. It really is amazing how confused various governments are in an internet age where it's easy for lots of people to make little bits of money on the side. They simply can't figure out that such things are not a "business." We've seen the same thing in the past with various local governments demanding that folks selling on eBay need to get an auctioneer's license. And then some people wonder why citizens are fed up with their government representatives?

Filed Under: blogging, business license, philadelphia