Some interesting commentary from an IP lawyer on the whole Righthaven thing. He doesn’t think their business model is viable either, and they won’t likely have any more success than RIAA did with their lawsuits. My main beef with Righthaven is not so much that they are defending their copyrights, but that they immediately resorted to a lawsuit without first trying to resolve the issue decently.
I would certainly hope if a copyright holder thinks I’ve gone over the Fair Use line, he or she at least has the decency to talk to me about it before slapping me with a lawsuit. I’d even take a Cease and Desist letter as being relatively polite in this regard.
Because Stevens Media LLC has decided to expand its relationship with Righthaven, I am blacklisting them. John Richardson has published a list of all Stevens Media holdings, for those interested in making sure they don’t get what ought not to be coming to them (traffic).
This is one reason I’m against patents and copyrights in general. Patents and copyrights really only have value if you’re willing to sue infringers, and the lawsuits typically cost far more than the revenue you are trying to get back!
“My main beef with Righthaven is not so much that they are defending their copyrights, but that they immediately resorted to a lawsuit without first trying to resolve the issue decently.”
That is because it has nothing to do with copywrite protection.
It is just like the scumbags who buy up patents and then go around suing everyone, and never really produce anything themselves.
I’ve got six patents but the company got all the credit.
It’s smells like whats-his-name, the patent lawsuit and shareholder lawsuit guy – Bill Lerach (of NY/San Diego firm Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach) made his bones in the 90’s with bogus lawsuits that finally caught up with him/them – based on kickback schemes with clients – and got sentenced to prison in ’08. Is he out already?