Appeals court so far not assisting Righthaven with auction plea
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23 December 2011
9:50 p.m.
VEGAS INC archives
With the holiday weekend under way, Las Vegas copyright lawsuit filer Righthaven LLC appeared to remain in danger Friday of seeing its intellectual property auctioned off.
That’s because the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco had not acted through Friday night on Righthaven’s "emergency motion" filed Tuesday to block the threatened auction.
So far, a court-appointed receiver has seized Righthaven’s website domain name with plans to auction it. The receiver through Friday night hadn’t announced the auction procedures or when the sales process would begin.
A court has also ordered Righthaven to surrender its 278 copyrights to the receiver to be auctioned. With the appeals court not yet acting on Righthaven’s appeal, it’s unknown if or when Righthaven will turn over the copyrights or whether its CEO will be forced to appear in court to sign them over.
The copyrights cover content assigned to Righthaven by the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post, as well as some unrelated sports betting content and two porn movies.
With six federal judges ruling Righthaven lacked standing to sue over the newspaper material, it’s doubtful the company’s federal copyright registrations have much value.
They could be purchased by Righthaven lawsuit defendants, however, for the purpose of once and for all closing Righthaven’s pending lawsuits and to cancel its pending appeals of adverse court decisions.
With no copyrights, Righthaven may have nothing to sue or appeal over.
Righthaven since March 2010 has filed 275 lawsuits alleging infringement of material from the R-J and the Post.
But a series of legal defeats in court has left Righthaven in financial distress after it was ordered to pay $216,355 in defendants’ legal fees — with more fee awards likely in other pending cases.
The financial problems are the reason one of the defendants, Wayne Hoehn, gained the court order to have Righthaven’s assets auctioned off by a receiver so he could recover some of the $63,720 he is owed.
Righthaven, in the meantime, appeared to be suffering through additional financial problems this week.
Its attorney handling Righthaven’s lone lawsuit in South Carolina, Edward Bertele, asked to withdraw from the case after Righthaven defaulted on its payment obligations to him.
"Under the present conditions, i.e. that Righthaven has failed to abide by material terms of its engagement and is in receivership, it would be a financial hardship for counsel to continue in his representation of the company in this matter,” Bertele wrote in his filing.
Also, the Las Vegas company that manages and co-owns Righthaven, Net Sortie Systems LLC, is listed as being in “default” status with the Nevada Secretary of State’s office.
Net Sortie Systems is owned by Las Vegas attorney and Righthaven CEO Steven Gibson. It appeared to be in default after missing a Nov. 30 deadline to file its current list of officers and pay its annual fees to the Secretary of State, which handles incorporations in Nevada.
The other co-owner of Righthaven is an Arkansas company controlled by the same investors who own the Review-Journal. That company, SI Content Monitor LLC of Little Rock, is in good standing with the Arkansas Secretary of State.
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It makes you wonder why Righthaven has not yet filed for bankruptcy protection? Since filing bankruptcy requires a company to fully disclose its finances it is possible this information could put both Steve Gibson and Stephens Media in even further legal jeopardy this keeping Righthaven from filing.
Although we may not be able to hear, see or read about "karma" kicking someone or a company in the rearend...nonetheless, it happens! Ha! Take that Righthaven and all involved in trying to extort people. Finally, the Judges got it right...'bout time. Perhaps this would be a start to eliminating greed in this country...?? Ok, well, one can dream, right?
There's just a couple of questions: First, wasn't (or isn't) Righthaven an LLC? Second, with the no standing issues and the court not recognizing the "second" contract, it seems to me that Stephens owns the copyrights. Third, who wins and what, with the exception of possibly legal fees in this. And, fourth, why doesn't Stephens sever itself from this agreement? The company obviously plans to stay in business as it just bought a few more newspapers.
As for a bankruptcy filing, well, not all documents are always made public.
Finally, my recollection from Steve's stories (and those at EFF) is that there are at least three or four counterclaims pending agains the Review-Journal, Frederick, et al. Those legal fees must be very high at that point. I can only surmise that billionaire Warren Stephens just doesn't care, which makes me wonder how long he'll be a "billionaire."
None of this makes any sense any longer, not that this approach made any sense in the beginning.
Hey Shermie...
You'll look PERFECT in your Grinch costume this year!
I'm sure your face has turned green from that noose tightening around your neck.
Remember when you were the 'Worst Person In The World', and it wasn't even ABOUT Righthaven???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69gDCp6p3...
Ah, those were the DAYS, eh, Shermie???
In the made-for-TV movie, "How Stupidity & Greed Brought Down A Media Empire", Steve Carell will play Steven Gibson, and John Malkovich will play Shermie...
First, though, we have to wait for the ending to write itself...it's gonna be a doozy!!!
I don't recall seeing any posts from Sgt. Rock recently. Am I forgetting them? Wonder if he has moved on, or just too humiliated to speak?
"and John Malkovich will play Shermie..."
lol --- perfect.
"Wonder if he has moved on, or just too humiliated to speak?"
guys like Shermie and Rock don't get humiliated as that would require a whole suite of traits they don't possess. No, they just ignore their past foibles and move on to their next "outrage".
what is funny is Shermie over on the RJ still pontificating about all sorts of things --- anything from how to run the country to how busting public employee unions will save the world. His problem however is that his track record says he should probably just shut his mouth and slither off into the darkness,
Hey Shermie --- your "little friend" is now laying out in a pool of his own blood. You just going to leave him behind? And after all those nice things you said about him. figures.
lol
If you are going to be the bully on the block, this serves as fair warning, that, in time, you are going to go up against the wrong person or people. Righthaven's tactics worked for a while, until they came upon the little kid who was not going to lie down for them. Now, they are reaping their just dessert (or desert .... :) ). But, the RJ and Post will come up with another way to usurp rules and regulations in place. If they do not like the laws regarding copyrights and infringements, then they need to spend the $$$ to have the laws amended, not to attempt to pursue what they perceive as legal loopholes, instead of resorting to strong arm tactics, which, do not work.
This embarrassing saga for Righthaven just keeps getting better. I think Righthaven should be held to it's own standards and pay up within 48 hours.
Righthaven should be forced to turn over it's 278 copyrights, the two porn movies and the sports content to the receiver immediately to pay off Righthavens victims and counsel. And holding Righthaven to it's own standards, they should turn over their name of course.
If Righthaven LLC is found to own no copyrights then the managers and principals of this LLC should be prosecuted for fraud and do jail time. This is looking like a white collar crime complete with threats by Righthaven including extortion and a shakedown. Really! Demanding money promptly for something they don't even own! It is sad and unfortunate that some victims fell for this tactic.
Righthaven just couldn't keep fooling all of the people all of the time. Righthaven filing an "emergency motion" is laughable. Especially since Righthaven has already crashed and burned. They just can't accept the reality of it yet.
Does anyone know what will happen to all those cans of Lemon-Fresh Pledge that cheeseball Steven Gibson had stored in the cabinet behind him in a Sun photo from about a year ago? I'd like to bid on them if possible.
Also, if anyone could locate that photo and provide a link it would be appreciated.
Holiday Karma can be a B*tch, can't it?? You just can't make stuff like this up in Las Vegas.. Great entertainment.
I believe that murrayburns has raised some important questions, and they are similar to those I have.
On a tangent, I think that the auction of copyrights involved in current appeals should be blocked until the appeal process has run its course. It is not that I want Righthaven to prevail, but rather it seems to me that using the courts to take away what is otherwise a legitimate course of action is as unjust as what many of us perceive the prior actions of RH to have been.
There are several important issues that have been raised in all of this and they deserve a full hearing and decision by the courts at the highest level to ensure justice is served.
Also, it is possible that Stephens Media could step up and make the claim that since it was ruled that Righthaven did not have standing because no real transfer of copyright took place that those copyrights are not subject to being auctioned off, since Stephens Media is in fact the owner of them still. Such an action by SM would be painful, but is possible since SM is *NOT* an owner of RH. As has been pointed out in several stories it is an LLC owned by various members of the Stephens family that is a co-owner of Righthaven, LLC.
As much as many of us want to see Righthaven taken to task over this, I want it to be done in a way that preserves the integrity of the Copyright Act, the dignity of the courts and is in the interest of justice.