Sharron Angle Settles With Righthaven

from the just-get-it-over-with dept

visual77 points to the news that Sharron Angle has settled with Righthaven. This is hardly news. Now that Angle lost her campaign for the US Senate, there was little reason to keep up the fight. I'm sure Righthaven, since it's really an arm of Stephens Media and the Las Vegas Review-Journal -- which supported Angle's candidacy at the same time it claimed she was "stealing" from them, made it quite easy for her to settle for next to nothing. The only reason the company sued in the first place was because some local press had questioned why it had sued others, but had ignored Angle. So, it was all a publicity stunt, and now that the campaign is over, I'm sure both sides found it easier to just close out the case and move on.

Separately, that same article highlights one person who's been sued who plans to fight back, no matter what the cost. Robert Zumbrunnen, who runs the popular Silicon Investor web board, doesn't seem to want to back down:

"I'm really as aggressive about this issue as I can be. But I can't, as they whine that I didn't, read all of the thousands of messages posted every day, devoting what would amount to every waking minute (only to fall further and further behind), rather than little things like operating the site as a business," Zumbrunnen said in an email. "It's obvious they don't really want a fight. Unfortunately, I rather enjoy a knock-down drag-out and they did swing first.

"They've been scratching out a living catching minnows in nets and have decided to test deeper waters with me. Or they have no clue that they're trying to intimidate not the average blogger here, but a grey-bearded guy who's been around the block more times than he can count.

"The average blogger is likely not very well-versed in the legal realities of online publishing, so my guess is they're hoping that I'm also not, and further hoping I have deep enough pockets to help line theirs but not deep enough to pay the real sharks (lawyers) to take care of these things.

"They chose poorly. There will be no settlement.

"If need be, I won't bat an eye at spending a multiple of any proposed settlement amount in the interest of defending myself and making an example of these folks, because it's very simply the right thing to do," Zumbrunnen concluded.

Silicon Investor is really quite a large forum for tech investors, and I'm actually quite surprised to find out that they apparently never bothered to register a DMCA agent. Yet another reminder, that if you run a website that allows any user participation, you really should register a DMCA agent.

Still, even without a DMCA agent, given the sheer volume of content on Silicon Investor, it seems like Zumbrunnen should be able to make a strong case that the site's operators should not face liability for postings of users, even without the DMCA's specific safe harbor. It's just an issue of properly applying liability, which Righthaven has failed to do. Hopefully some of the smart lawyers who are fighting Righthaven's awful campaign will step up and help Silicon Investor as well.

Filed Under: copyright, sharron angle
Companies: righthaven, stephens media

Hasbro Sends Sharron Angle Cease & Desist For Monopoly-Like Game Board On Website

from the cultural-commentary dept

It does seem odd that Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle (who apparently has a half-decent chance of winning) keeps running into intellectual property issues. Angle, of course, was the candidate who promised to sue Harry Reid, whose job she's trying to take, for copyright infringement, because his campaign reposted an older version of her website to suggest she was changing her positions. As far as I can tell, no such lawsuit was ever actually filed. However, Angle got into some infringement hot water herself when Righthaven sued her for copying a LVRJ article on her website. Now we can add Hasbro to the list. Hasbro, the notoriously overprotective game maker, is threatening Angle because she put up a fake gameboard for a game which attacks Reid. Apparently, the boardgame looks too much like Monopoly for Hasbro's tastes. Apparently, Hasbro wants to make sure it keeps its monopoly on Monopoly... If Angle actually wins, it would be nice if she then used her new job to help fix problematic intellectual property laws that get in the way of free speech, but seeing as she seemed willing (at least in talking) to use the laws herself in the same manner, I doubt we'll see anything productive from her on this topic.

Filed Under: harry reid, monopoly, sharron angle, trademark
Companies: hasbro

Las Vegas Review-Journal Endorses The Same Candidate It's Suing For 'Stealing' From Them?

from the cognitive-dissonance... dept

At the end of yet another good report by the Las Vegas Sun on a defendant in a Righthaven case fighting back (thanks to visual77 for sending this in), there's an interesting pointer to a blog post from Steve Friess, a Vegas-based writer (who has previously come out in support of Righthaven's lawsuits) noting that it appears that the Las Vegas Review-Journal really doesn't take copyright issues as seriously as it pretends in its sermons on the subject. After all, it keeps claiming that copyright infringement is no different than "stealing," and yet, Freiss notes, the LVRJ has now endorsed Sharron Angle for Senate, the same candidate that it (via Righthaven) has sued for copyright infringement:

Congrats, R-J, for proving just how seriously you take copyright theft. Copyrighting is so important that, as your top lawyer Mark Hinueber told a Society of Professional Journalists gathering, it is nearly fundamental to the very foundation of the American way of life. But, on the other hand, someone who steals from you? She ought to be a United States senator! Cognitive dissonance much?

Of course, everyone knows the reality here. The LVRJ and Righthaven are not about protecting the sanctity of copyright, or "stopping theft." It's a pure business model effort, an attempt to shakedown people for money, for sharing their content in a way that does absolutely no harm to the original work or the business of the paper. But, still, it's good to see even Righthaven supporters calling out the hypocrisy of the LVRJ claiming that it's akin to stealing on the one hand, while endorsing one of the people they sued for a position in the Senate at the same time. You don't endorse the person who stole from you for Senate. And that's the point. Angle didn't "steal" anything -- and everyone at Righthaven and the LVRJ know it.

Separately, as for the original Sun article highlighting another defense effort against Righthaven, two quick points. This is the first defense I've seen that calls out the judge's ruling in the Tenenbaum case, in which the judge called the statutory rates "constitutionally excessive," and a violation of due process. This defendant is claiming that the demands brought forth by Righthaven violate due process rights based on this. I have to say that's quite a stretch of a legal argument (and an awful lot of people fully expect that ruling in the Tenenbaum case to be overturned), but still interesting. The second point is that while a lot of the defenses against Righthaven suits seem to toss up new arguments, it appears they're starting to all focus in on a few key arguments. It will be interesting to see how the courts respond to these.

Filed Under: copyright, endorsements, las vegas review journal, sharron angle, stealing
Companies: righthaven, stephens media

Righthaven Sues Senate Candidate Sharron Angle

from the copyrighter-in-training? dept

After Righthaven kicked off its mass lawsuits against various websites for reposting some parts of Las Vegas Review Journal articles, some folks wondered if Righthaven would sue US Senate candidate Sharron Angle, since she appeared to be reposting parts of some LVRJ stories on the campaign website. And, it took a little while, but late last week, Sharron Angle was, in fact, sued for copyright infringement over posting those LVRJ articles. Apparently, with Angle, Righthaven is claiming two separate copyrights, and demanding $150,000 -- twice its normal request for $75,000.

Of course, what's really ironic here is that Sharron Angle is the candidate we talked about back in July -- claiming copyright infringement by Senator Harry Reid, who she's challenging in the election, after Reid set up a clone site of Angle's old website, which had some content Angle wanted to distance herself from. And when confronted on this issue, Angle insisted she would sue, though as far as I can tell, no lawsuit was ever actually filed.

So, it's not as if Angle is any sort of champion for smarter copyright lawsuits. I've seen some people think that, because of this lawsuit by Righthaven, if she gets elected, perhaps she'll speak up for better copyright laws, but that seems unlikely. Still, it is somewhat ironic that she was claiming copyright infringement by Reid, while at the very same time, taking chunks of the LVRJ -- especially since Righthaven's lawsuits were already ongoing at that point. I would imagine that Angle's words at the time might come back to haunt her here:

"Well your website is like you, it's your intellectual property," Angle said. "So they can't use something that's yours, intellectual property, unless they pay you for it or get your permission... And he didn't ask me for it, and he didn't pay me for it."

Still, with a lawsuit against someone so high profile, perhaps it will get more people paying attention to just how ridiculous Righthaven's lawsuits have become.

Filed Under: copyright, sharron angle
Companies: las vegas review journal, righthaven, stephens media

Sharron Angle Insists She's Going To Sue Harry Reid For His Reposting Of Angle's Own Website

from the political-calculations dept

Earlier this week, we wrote about the bizarre decision by Nevada Senatorial candidate Sharron Angle to send a cease-and-desist to Sen. Harry Reid (who she's challenging in the election) over Reid's decision to put her old website back online. Reid was doing so to point to statements Angle made on her old website that were toned down on her new website. The idea, of course, is to suggest that she's hiding her real positions. Whether or not that's true, Angle accused Reid of both copyright infringement and trying to trick users into giving the Reid campaign their information.

The Reid campaign originally complied with the cease-and-desist and (of course) went public with it, generating much more attention to the original issue. With so much publicity, Reid's campaign has put the website back up. Assuming that the reposted website is the same as what was up before, it's clearly done by the Reid campaign -- so the claims of possible confusion or tricking users is ridiculous.

However, Angle is now saying that since Reid has put the website back up, she's definitely going to sue:

"Well your website is like you, it's your intellectual property," Angle said. "So they can't use something that's yours, intellectual property, unless they pay you for it or get your permission... And he didn't ask me for it, and he didn't pay me for it. I would have sold it to him."

Angle was asked: "So the latest is that it is up again, and you are just going to have to see as far as pursing this in court? Is that the plan?"

"Well we are going to pursue it," Angle replied. "I don't think that Harry is above the law. He needs to obey the law if you and I need to obey the law. Harry isn't immune. He needs to obey the law as well."

Now, at a first pass, Angle (while a bit confused on the terminology) is probably correct that Reid is technically "infringing" by posting the website, but the Reid campaign would (I'm sure) hit back with a nice fair use defense that would have a pretty high likelihood of succeeding. That said, the whole idea of actually going to court over this is preposterous. This is clearly not what copyright law is about and the whole point by the Reid campaign is to draw more attention to Angle's old website. If she were politically savvy, she would just drop it, rather than drawing more attention to it herself. Going to court makes her old website the story, even as she's trying to hide it.

Filed Under: copyright, harry reid, nevada, politics, sharron angle, websites

Senate Candidate Angle Accuses Senator Reid Of Copyright Infringement For Displaying Angle's Website

from the that's-not-how-this-works dept

The internet never forgets, but apparently, someone involved in the Senate election campaign for Sharron Angle was unaware of this fact. It appears that Angle and her staff are also quite unaware of The Streisand Effect. As you may or may not know, Angle is running for US Senator in Nevada, where she's challenging current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Reid, apparently, has been using images from Angle's primary campaign website against her. Angle apparently totally revamped her website after winning the primary, apparently to tone down some of the rhetoric on the website. So, she's not very pleased that Reid is showing off her old website -- which his staff apparently reposted at a new domain.

So, what does she do? She sends a cease-and-desist to Reid for publishing her own website claiming that it infringed on her copyright. No, seriously. You can read the cease & desist here and laugh along with it. Her lawyers claim that Reid only did this to capture email addresses under false pretenses, but it seems pretty clear that Reid's campaign just wanted to highlight some of Angle's more incendiary comments from the primary campaign, which she's now trying to back away from.

And, of course, because of all of this, Angle and her lawyers handed the Reid campaign a perfect peg to highlight exactly those statements.

Filed Under: campaigns, copyright, harry reid, nevada, senate, sharron angle