A couple of posts down I wrote about a case in which a poster was embroiled in a fight over the use of copyrighted material.
The copyright plaintiff, Righthaven, is a limited liability corporation and lost its case since it didn't hold the actual copyright.
The judge in the case awarded the defendent c. $35,000 in lawyers fees which Righthaven says it won't pay, and will declare bankruptcy instead.
But an analysis says that it might be provable that Righthaven was set up by its creators, Stephens Media, and MediaNews Group plus some single names (I will link to the article I'm referencing so you can get those if you want) knowing it was all a bit of a scam, and not wanting to put their own assets at risk, which would mean that they themselves can be sued for the fees.
I don't know much about Stephens Media, having avoided the Las Vegas paper, so I couldn't get tainted with a thought that Righthaven could sue me for, but I have admired some of the work that MediaNews has done.
Weirdly though they claimed that vigorously defending their material from copying would make them a more effective news system, since Righthaven's start up, it seems to me that their reporting has taken a serious dive in quality.
It's like the flatlining of news quality at the New York Times since they started their pay wall. Krugman's the only writer there who is even trying anymore. I wonder if the NYT is looking to catch Wall Street Journal readers with small brains and deep pockets.
Logically, making more money should make news teams better, but that's not what we are seeing.
Meanwhile The Washington Post keeps rolling along with some of the best reporting and still being offered freely on the web.
Media groups behind Righthaven could get hit with some bad judgements. Could it make them go back to superior reporting?
Maybe not, but the passing of news is an important function, one now apparently backed by a US District Court (in which most constitutional decisions are resolved according to one report on CA's trial to overturn Proposition 8).
The right to be informed looks to be winning.
I hope this continues, and a lot of people hope that Righthaven doesn't.
This post is a summary of and comment on a report at TechDirt
If Righthaven Declares Bankruptcy, Expect Lawyers To Go After Stephens Media, Media News, And Righthaven Principals
Also recommended:
Righthaven Defendant Moves To Strip Firm’s Assets
