Copyright Infringement
Beginning in 2010, the Stephens Media property Las Vegas Review-Journal has adopted a new business plan based on copyright litigation. This practice has been coined "copyright trolling", named after its practice of scouring the internet for 'violations' in order to make a profit. The newspaper is currently involved in a controversy over the licensing of its content to Righthaven LLC, a litigation firm that was "grubstaked" by Stephens Media, the parent company of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and exists for the sole purpose of suing media outlets, including blogs, over the use of copyrighted content that first appeared in the Review-Journal.
Righthaven sued a Boston-based cat blogger over her attribution to a Review-Journal story on her blog. Righthaven CEO Steve Gibson's vision is to "monetize news content on the backend, by scouring the internet for infringing copies of his client's articles, then suing and relying on the harsh penalties in the Copyright Act — up to $150,000 for a single infringement — to compel quick settlements."
Between March and August 2010, Righthaven LLC filed litigation suits against 107 blogs, political forums, major political parties, and several of the newspaper's own sources including NORML, DailyPaul.com, Infowars, Free Republic and others. On August 25, 2010, the Electronic Frontier Foundation announced that it would make efforts to assist Righthaven LLC defendants to the best of its ability. In September, the EFF, with other pro bono attorneys (Las Vegas attorney Chad Bowers and attorneys from the firm of Winston & Strawn) filed an Answer and Counterclaim on behalf of Democratic Underground, a political website that Righthaven sued when a Democratic Underground member posted a five-sentence excerpt from a Review-Journal article. Counterclaims were asserted against Stephens Media as well as Righthaven. The pleading alleged a "sham relationship" between the newspaper and Righthaven, and accused Righthaven of copyright fraud.
In March 2011, a federal judge found that uses of Las Vegas Review-Journal content, including citations of full articles, is generally 'fair use' ref.
Read more about this topic: Las Vegas Review-Journal
Famous quotes containing the word infringement:
“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”
—William Pitt, The Younger (1759–1806)