Righthaven Archives
In another theatrical diatribe against Righthaven LLC, defense attorneys say the Las Vegas company presented a federal judge with a “false choice” with its warning it may shut down or declare bankruptcy.
Righthaven is the newspaper copyright lawsuit filer that last year teamed with the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post to sue over online infringements involving content from those newspapers.
After filing 275 lawsuits in 18 months, and collecting what are believed to be hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlements, the company’s litigation campaign is stalled by court rulings finding it lacked standing to sue over R-J material, as well as the loss of the Post as a client.
After U.S. District Judge Philip Pro ordered Righthaven to pay prevailing defendant Wayne Hoehn’s $34,045 in legal fees, Righthaven asked Pro to stay his judgment while it appeals the dismissal of the Hoehn case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Righthaven warned last week that if Pro doesn’t stay the judgment payment due Wednesday, it could be forced to shut down or file for bankruptcy to protect its assets from creditors.
Pro didn’t rule on Righthaven’s emergency stay request Monday, but Hoehn’s attorneys filed a brief opposing it.
“Righthaven has presented the court with a false choice: The court must stay execution of Hoehn’s judgment, or force Righthaven to pay Hoehn immediately,” Hoehn’s attorneys wrote in a brief.
They said all Righthaven needs to do is post a bond for the fee amount — which is growing and is likely to grow through the appeals process — or place the fees owed to Hoehn in escrow during the appeals process.
A $34,000 bond can be obtained for $3,400, the attorneys said.
Hoehn, a Kentucky message board poster, is represented by Las Vegas attorneys Marc Randazza and J. Malcolm DeVoy IV of Randazza Legal Group.
In their court brief, Randazza and DeVoy noted that the meter is running on Hoehn’s legal fees. On top of the $34,045 due, the Randazza attorneys expect to ask that Righthaven pay another $114,000 for Hoehn’s representation through the appeals process, should they prevail.
Randazza and DeVoy also offered up more of their usual criticism of Righthaven and its no-warning lawsuits.
Righthaven says its lawsuit are needed to crack down on rampant online infringements of newspaper material, but critics say its lawsuits are frivolous, riddled with dubious legal claims, typically target defendants naïve about the copyright law and threaten free speech.
The Randazza attorneys argued Righthaven has little hope of convincing the 9th Circuit to overturn Pro’s three rulings finding Righthaven lacked standing to sue Hoehn because the R-J remained in control of the content at issue despite Righthaven’s claims of ownership, that Hoehn was protected by fair use in his post and that Righthaven must pay his fees.
“The road ahead of it requires it to convince the 9th Circuit that this honorable court erred on standing, erred on fair use and abused its discretion in awarding fees,” their brief said. “With odds like that, whomever is making decisions at Righthaven should steer far clear of any sports books in Las Vegas.”
Commenting on fair use rulings against Righthaven, in which judges found Righthaven wasn’t harmed by the defendants because it only uses copyrights for lawsuits, the Randazza attorneys wrote: “Hoehn could not cause an iota of harm to Righthaven’s market for its putatively owned copyrights unless he began filing a raft of no-notice lawsuits for copyright infringement claiming that he owned the copyrights that Righthaven has registered with the U.S. Copyright Office.”
“This is hardly the first time Righthaven has tried to slither away into the darkness rather than be held accountable for its misdeeds,” the Randazza filing said. “In fact, if Righthaven is to be believed, it is in worse financial condition than ever, and may not even have the funds to file an appeal brief — making its numerous notices of appeal amount to little more than another dilatory tactic to deprive defendants of their due relief and the finality of their respective victories, all while bleeding them for as much money in legal fees as they can muster.”
“If Hoehn cannot collect the attorney’s fees to which he is entitled for fighting back against Righthaven and vindicating his First Amendment rights, while furthering Copyright Act jurisprudence, other defendants will be cowed into the silent surrender of their rights, as even when they win, they can still lose to a disingenuous plaintiff that screams ‘bankruptcy!’ once the bill for its misdeeds comes due,” the Randazza filing said.
In another Righthaven development, the digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation praised MediaNews Group, owner of the Denver Post, and its new CEO for parting ways with Righthaven.
The EFF is litigating against Righthaven and R-J owner Stephens Media LLC in high-profile Righthaven cases.