Righthaven Archives
As a mass copyright lawsuit filer, Righthaven LLC of Las Vegas continues to struggle to actually prosecute many of the lawsuits it files.
That was illustrated this week when five Righthaven lawsuits in Las Vegas were dismissed after the company failed to show it had served the defendants by the deadlines set in each case. These bring to six the number of such dismissals since July 20.
Unless Righthaven can revive the lawsuits, it will lose its investment in each case consisting at least of the $350 court filing fees and any legal work that went into identifying the alleged infringements and drafting the lawsuits.
The company since March 2010 has filed 275 lawsuits claiming websites, bloggers and message board posters infringed on material from the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post.
Defendants whose lawsuits were dismissed this week are:
• Duncan Shields
• John Lundberg and Mark Pilkington.
• Peter May-Ostendorp
• Lisa Vinci (the case against codefendant Inform Technologies Inc. was dismissed earlier).
• Bob G. Bell
The suits were dismissed without prejudice, meaning Righthaven can sue the defendants again over the same alleged infringements if it chooses to do so.
Whether Righthaven even has standing to sue over Review-Journal material is the subject of intense legal debate – with all sides waiting for one or more of the Nevada federal judges to rule on that issue.
Four Nevada judges this summer dismissed Righthaven lawsuits because of a flawed lawsuit contract with the owner of the R-J – a contract the judges said didn’t give Righthaven standing in court.
That’s because copyright plaintiffs must have exclusive rights to material they sue over, but the Righthaven contract left the R-J in control of the content at issue.
Righthaven says it has fixed the lawsuit contract, a contention disputed by defense attorneys.
Righthaven’s problems with serving defendants it sues appear to be continuing.
Certificates of service have not been filed in five Righthaven lawsuits filed on May 5 and May 6 – putting those cases on track for dismissal unless the defendants are served.
One of those defendants, Greg Stocks of Law Med Consulting LLC in Baltimore, filed briefs in two Righthaven cases this week accusing Righthaven of "fraud upon the court."
Stocks pointed out that when he was sued by Righthaven – but not served – Righthaven filed with the court a summons listing the correct street address for he and Law Med.
But later, Righthaven told U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt it had no address on file for Stocks and Law Med and that’s why Righthaven had failed to provide them with required sanctions material.
"The truth of the matter is Righthaven has made absolutely no effort or attempt to comply with Judge Hunt’s order as it pertains to the defendants in this case," Stocks wrote in his brief. "Righthaven has made intentional misrepresentations to the court, which arguably constitute a fraud upon the court, and Righthaven has intentionally failed to comply with the court’s order specifically to prevent the named defendants from receiving the documents and material information contained therein as ordered by Judge Hunt.
"In fact, Judge Hunt was specific in his reasoning as to why Righthaven must provide the documents directly to all parties: 'The court is fully aware of Righthaven’s practice of filing suit against a party and then entering settlement negotiations (and frequently settling) without ever serving the party. The court concludes that depriving those parties of the benefit of the court’s order would be unjust,'" his brief said.
Hunt on July 14 fined Righthaven $5,000 for deliberately hiding from Nevada federal judges the fact that the R-J’s owner, Stephens Media LLC, was an interested party in its R-J lawsuits as Stephens Media receives a 50 percent cut of lawsuit revenue after costs.
As part of the sanction, he ordered Righthaven to provide his sanctions order to show cause from June 14 and the transcript of the July 14 hearing to defendants in active R-J cases like Law Med.
Righthaven has denied Stocks’ fraud upon the court allegations.
Stocks mailed the brief alleging fraud to Hunt and the judge in his case, Edward Reed Jr. in Reno.
It’s unknown if, or when, the judges will do anything with the brief.
Besides his own situation, Stocks pointed out Righthaven reported to Hunt it had no address for four more defendants sued in May – yet the court docket clearly shows summonses in those cases listing the defendants’ addresses.
"Affiant questions whether Righthaven has made any effort to comply with the order of the court in regard to the defendants in these other cases also," Stocks wrote in his brief.