Since March 2010, Righthaven has teamed with the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post to file a whopping 275 federal lawsuits alleging copyright infringement and seeking damages of $150,000 apiece.
These lawsuits are filed in retroactive fashion, meaning if someone posted a Review-Journal story without authorization in December, Righthaven spotted the infringement in January, obtained the copyright to the story in February and sued the unsuspecting defendant in March.
The suits say Righthaven has the right to collect damages for infringements, be they in the past, the present or the future. Internet sites, bloggers and message board posters throughout North America and in Europe are accused in the suits of posting, without authorization, on their websites partial or entire stories from those newspapers, as well as editorials, columns, graphics and photos.