Righthaven joins such illustrious companies as the RIAA, the MPAA and good old SCO
This is probably the backstory to Clayton Cramer’s finale. The Las Vegas Review-Journal is specifically mentioned as one of Righthaven’s customers in this story by Wired’s Threat Level.
Gibson’s vision is to monetize news content on the backend, by scouring the internet for infringing copies of his client’s articles, then suing and relying on the harsh penalties in the Copyright Act — up to $150,000 for a single infringement — to compel quick settlements.
Clayton claimed he only published excerpts and links, but since he removed his entire archive, that claim is hard to verify. I suppose the Righthaven business model is to buy the right to sue at a pittance from the legacy media and then send out threating letters with an offer of settlement that’s less than the cost of even discussing your fair use legal defense with a lawyer.
While “fair use” is codified in copyright law, there’s no “safe harbor”, no easy-to-understand rulebook for staying in compliance.
I fully support the rights of a copyright holder, but I’m also a defender of fair use, excerpts with attributional, and deep linking.
digging their own graves - walls of the city Says :
[...] here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Who wants to bet that the weblogs covering this story have a larger collective reader [...]
2010-07-23 07:42 Permalink