Righthaven Archives
Attorneys fighting copyright company Righthaven LLC of Las Vegas on Thursday asked a federal judge to reject claims by its CEO that he's unable to bring the company into compliance with a court order and that he shouldn't be sanctioned.
As a company, rather than a law firm, Righthaven is the copyright enforcement partner of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and formerly of the Denver Post.
It gained attention in the worldwide media and legal industries the past two years by filing 275 no-warning lawsuits claiming copyrights were infringed on when material from those newspapers was copied and re-posted online without authorization by website operators, bloggers and message-board posters.
Righthaven's business plan of generating revenue by suing over copyrights it obtained from the newspapers represented a departure from the usual newspaper industry practice of resolving copyright problems out of court by sending formal takedown notices to copyright infringers or by simply calling or emailing them.
Righthaven initially won what are believed to be hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlements from defendants, but lately, the company has nearly shut down after being hit with unfavorable court rulings and running out of cash.
In the unfavorable rulings, Righthaven was found to lack standing to sue over the newspapers' content or those who used material from the newspapers were protected by the fair use doctrine of copyright law.
Righthaven's latest problem involves efforts by defendants to collect $186,680 in judgments from the company. The defendants were awarded their legal fees in the form of judgments after fighting the Righthaven lawsuits against them and winning.
With Righthaven claiming to have no cash, one defendant has seized its intellectual property with plans to auction it. Another, Thomas DiBiase, is trying to obtain financial information from Righthaven to see if it has other assets he can seize. The key piece of information attorneys for DiBiase are seeking is a transcript of a debtor's examination of Righthaven CEO Steven Gibson and his wife as Righthaven officers conducted recently by attorneys for another Righthaven defendant.
After Righthaven failed to turn over the financial information as ordered by U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen in Las Vegas, attorneys for DiBiase asked Leen to fine Righthaven and its officers $500 per day as a sanction for being in contempt of court.
Gibson, a Las Vegas attorney who dreamed up the company's litigation strategy, on Monday filed court papers saying he shouldn't be sanctioned since he doesn't have the financial information DiBiase seeks and the person who has it — Righthaven outside attorney Shawn Mangano — hasn't been heard from since February and can't be located or contacted.
DiBiase's attorneys at the digital freedom group Electronic Frontier Foundation responded Thursday to Gibson's filing with another of their frequent attacks of Gibson.
"If further evidence of the contempt of Steven Gibson, CEO of Plaintiff Righthaven LLC, or this court were needed, it is provided by his response to the proposed (sanctions) order,'' their filing said.
''Mr. Gibson offers excuses and proposals for further delays, none of which explains Righthaven’s ongoing failure to be reasonably diligent and energetic in attempting to accomplish what this court ordered,'' the filing said. ''The time for excuses and blaming others has long since (passed). Mr. Gibson, as CEO and the principal officer of Righthaven, has to comply with this court’s order and purge the ongoing contempt of court. There really is a simple solution for this problem (that should not have required all these hearings or briefs): hand over the documents.''
And while Gibson filed his court papers on Monday as a "non-party," representing himself as opposed to representing Righthaven, DiBiase's attorneys wrote in their filing Thursday that ''there is a host of compelling evidence that Righthaven is actually an alter-ego of Mr. Gibson.''
That language could be troubling down the road for Gibson and his coinvestor in Righthaven, an Arkansas company owned by the same family that owns the Review-Journal.
That's because some defendants frustrated in collecting their judgments from Righthaven have talked about trying to bypass Righthaven's limited liability company status — also known as piercing the corporate veil — so they can try to collect judgments and potentially damages directly from Gibson and his coinvestor.
The damages would be for Righthaven's practice of filing what critics call frivolous and abusive lawsuits with no legal foundation.
Gibson hasn't yet responded to these latest assertions, and it's unknown when Leen will rule on the sanctions issue.