Judge Considering Innocent Infringement Provision For Cat Blogger Sued By Righthaven

from the just-dismiss-the-case dept

The Righthaven saga continues. The Las Vegas Sun (who seems to be having fun reporting daily on this operation set up by its competitor), is noting that in the first court hearing on a Righthaven lawsuit, the judge appeared to want to figure out the absolute smallest sum that he could set for an unemployed, non-commercial cat blogger (written from the perspective of a cat) who was sued by Righthaven for posting an article, with a link and credit, about a fire that killed some birds. The magistrate judge clearly wanted the two sides to settle quickly, and kept pushing Righthaven boss Steven Gibson on how much it actually cost to file one of these lawsuits, and even challenged his initial claim of $1,800, and got him to push the number lower. The judge also brought up the potential of awarding $200 in damages -- which is the amount allowed for cases of innocent infringement. It seems pretty clear that the magistrate judge is not impressed with at least this lawsuit.

Separately, the article notes that the WEHCO Media newspaper chain -- apparently totally and completely oblivious to the massive negative publicity Righthaven has generated for the Las Vegas Review-Journal -- has become the second media company to sign up for Righthaven's brand of "copyright enforcement." Paul Smith, the President of WEHCO apparently said:

"It's a pretty serious matter when someone takes your copy, information you've spent a lot of money to produce."

To which we wonder if he even realizes what Righthaven does. First of all, having a random blog or forum repost your content with a link back to you isn't "a pretty serious matter." It's someone giving you some attention. It's certainly not taking anything away from you. Anyway, if you want a list of newspapers not to link to, WEHCO publishes the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (and the NW Arkansas Democrat-Gazette), the Benton County Daily Record, the California Democrat, the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the Fulton Sun, the News Tribune, the NW Arkansas Times, the Rogers Morning News, the Springdale Morning News, the Banner News, Camden News, El Dorado News-Times, the Texarkana Gazette and The Sentinel-Record. Apparently none of those papers want you alerting anyone to the news they publish.

Filed Under: blogs, cat blogger, copyright, innocent infringement
Companies: righthaven