Denver Post Sued Over Righthaven Connection

from the things-keep-looking-worse dept

This has not been a good week for Righthaven. Having lost the big lawsuit that almost certainly will knock out most of its other existing lawsuits (definitely in Nevada, though Colorado is still an open question), we now get the news that a Tea Party group targeted by Righthaven over Denver Post content isn't just countersuing Righthaven, but The Denver Post as well. A similar situation was what caused so much trouble for Righthaven in its Nevada suits. The Democratic Underground didn't just fight back against Righthaven, but dragged the newspaper, Stephens Media, back into the lawsuit as well. That resulted in the unmasking of the agreement between Stephens and Righthaven, showing that the copyright assignment was a sham -- and that Stephens Media was still very much a part of the lawsuit. Now that the same thing is happening in Denver, the same sort of agreement may come to light. Not that it seems like many other newspapers are rushing to sign up to work with Righthaven these days, but if they had any more doubt, the fact that people might sue them directly might seal the deal. In the meantime, we've finally found something that the Tea Party and Democratic Party supporters agree on: Righthaven and copyright trolling are a bad thing.

Filed Under: copyright, denver, denver post, standing, tea party
Companies: medianews, righthaven

Denver Post Column That Righthaven Is Suing Over May Have Given Implied Permission To Copy

from the oops dept

We already pointed out that Righthaven has signed up MediaNews and is now suing over people reposting content from the Denver Post, but law professor Eric Johnson is pointing out that the very first such lawsuit Righthaven filed may have some problems, specifically since the content that was "reposted" was written as an "open letter" to Tea Partyers. In his blog post on the subject, he notes that not only is the open letter format potentially suggesting it's okay to repost it, but also that the text itself implies that his column is a part of a grassroots effort. Johnson suggests that there's clear "implied permission" to repost the column. I would imagine that would make for quite a fun court battle.

Filed Under: copying, copyright, denver post, open letter
Companies: medianews, righthaven

Associated Press Chairman Signs Up For Righthaven, Begins Suing Bloggers

from the this-won't-end-well dept

Well, well, well. Remember back when the Associated Press threatened bloggers for quoting snippets of AP articles? Is the organization considering dipping its toes in the Righthaven waters? The Las Vegas Sun reports that Righthaven has signed up Media News as a client and has sued a blogger on behalf of the Denver Post, after the blogger apparently reposted a Denver Post column by Mike Rosen (with a link and credit). This is interesting for a few different reasons. First, it was just a few weeks ago that the Denver Post published a cryptic "reminder" about copyright that had a bunch of people scratching their heads. I had thought about mentioning it at the time, but it seemed so utterly lacking in context, that there wasn't much to say. I guess the Righthaven lawsuit provides context.

But, much more interesting is the Associated Press angle. You see, the CEO of MediaNews is one Dean Singleton. The same Dean Singleton is also the chairman of the board of... (you guessed it!) the Associated Press. He's also been their leading champion for the AP's backwards-looking bunker "lock everything up" mentality and its "DRM the news" strategy. So, if he's willing to partner with Righthaven and transfer copyrights to that company in exchange for suing bloggers, should we consider this a warning shot that the AP will be next? I'm sure that Righthaven would love that, though lately Righthaven's legal strategy hasn't looked so strong.

Filed Under: bloggers, copyright, dean singleton, denver post
Companies: associated press, medianews, righthaven