Clayton Cramer is reporting that our friends at Righthaven have been smacked down by a federal court who has dismissed one of their lawsuits for lack of standing. On top of that, the Court is considering applying sanctions to Righthaven. More from Righthaven Victim’s blog here. Steve Gibson also appeared defiant and petulant in an Interview with Wired, claiming there can now be no doubt about Righthaven’s assignment of those copyrights.
I wish Clayton and others best of luck in getting what’s owed to them back. Righthaven or no, the system is still horribly broken that this kind of shakedown was even possible.
I smell a quick bankruptcy declaration!
It won’t help. The contract between Righthaven and Stephens Media puts SM on the hook for Righthaven’s suits. It was apparently the worst written legal contract in recent history: so arms-length that Righthaven did not actually own the copyrights, but so close that SM gets the liability for Righthaven’s actions.
Did they write the settlement agreements so badly that you still have the right to appeal them?
Ordinarily, once you make a settlement agreement, it is done. But when the settlement agreement is based on a false statement of facts–and one that a federal judge has ruled is a false statement of facts–that opens up a whole new can of worms. The enormous number of these settlement agreements based on the false claim of copyright ownership by itself makes class action suit entirely plausible.