Comments on: Why We Won’t Link To Denver Post, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Salt Lake Tribune, and Several Others

By: perlhaqr

perlhaqr — Mon, 16 May 2011 21:01:03 +0000

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/10/dmca-righthaven-loophole/

$100, Righthaven can’t touch you.

By: NT

NT — Sat, 14 May 2011 03:31:22 +0000

“because they copied more than a couple of paragraphs or a photo”

Why would you ever need to copy more than ONE paragraph, never mind a couple?

Why would you copy someone’s photograph without permission (they are clearly under copyright and much less subject to fair use)?

I’m not saying that draconian standards are good. I just would like a clearer sense of exactly WHAT they are suing over, and what the most minimal case in dispute has been.

By: eugene

eugene — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:00:03 +0000

we were all set to subscribe to a paper here in Las Vegas, we’ll go with the Sun thanks for the heads up we’ll not be patronizing the Review Journal

By: cowboy

cowboy — Thu, 05 May 2011 02:59:56 +0000

Last week, Scott Pierce of the Salt Lake Tribune used the word: “vomit” to describe a recent Glee episode. Yes, it was in the ‘blog’ part of the online version of the SLTrib because I seriously doubt professional journalism would allow him to use that term in print.

Apparently, there is a different standard for print as opposed to a silly blog.

By: kfreed

kfreed — Wed, 04 May 2011 09:22:21 +0000

Oops, that was supposed to read Electronic Frontier Foundation. In any event, here’s another story from BoingBoing that will undoubtedly warm your heart:

“Righthaven copyright trolls never had the right to sue, have their asses handed to them by the EFF”

http://boingboing.net/2011/04/17/righthaven-copyright.html

By: kfreed

kfreed — Wed, 04 May 2011 08:48:32 +0000

P.S. Righthaven isn’t having a great deal of luck in the courts these days as judges are wising up to Righthaven’s copyright scam. From the Electronic Freedom Foundation (Righthaven has no standing to sue):

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/04/righthaven-v-cio-it-s-hard-out-here-troll

By: kfreed

kfreed — Wed, 04 May 2011 08:39:08 +0000

Having learned that the Denver Post has allowed Righthaven to extort money in its name, I’ve dropped the Denver Post from my reading list and wrote the publication to express my disgust. I also downloaded a newspaper blacklist (excel spreadsheet) from a website devoted to supporting Righthaven victims:

http://righthavenvictims.blogspot.com/p/participating-newspapers.html

If I were you, I wouldn’t even paraphrase anything they publish. Users were doing them a favor by linking to their site and generating hits. Not anymore.

By: paul canning

paul canning — Wed, 04 May 2011 03:15:16 +0000

Thank X*st we don’t have this in the UK

By: Ahab

Ahab — Wed, 04 May 2011 01:39:39 +0000

Thank you for sharing this devastating information. Can you offer advice to bloggers who find themselves the target of these lawsuits? Are there any organizations they can turn to for assistance?

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Wed, 04 May 2011 01:14:31 +0000

This is similar to a scheme that a few law firms were running in southern california.

There were laws on the books that allowed a law firm to sue businesses for minor health code violations.

The lawyers would troll state agency Web sites for lists of alleged violations of small-business codes, such as restaurant hygiene infractions. They would sue the businesses on the lists, which are notoriously preliminary. Then they would contact the defendants with offers to settle for a few thousand dollars a pop. Since most of their victims didn’t have the wherewithal to hire their own lawyers, and had little experience responding to formal legal complaints, this scam began to look like a new frontier in legal extortion and a distinctive California scourge, like medflies and recall campaigns.

After the John and Ken show (a very popular talk radio show) started a campaign, the Attorney General filed suit against Trevor Law and a few others.

Perhaps the Attorney General of Colorado needs to know about this scam.