Tag Archives: Righthaven

A call for copyright reform

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Kudos to David Freddoso of the Washington Examiner, who yesterday called for copyright reform:

[P]art of the problem is that current copyright law is ambiguous about what constitutes “fair use.” Congress could put an end to this gaming of the legal system by rectifying this. It’s something that House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Tex., should seriously consider.

In justifying his call to action, David cites activities by Righthaven, highlighting the chilling effect copyright trolls have even on established media players like the Examiner:

Throughout the Reid-Angle Senate race in Nevada, we were scared to death to quote or link to anything at the Las Vegas Review Journal (dare I even post something with their name in it?) because they have farmed out copyright infringement to a serial lawsuit abuser.

When a conservative-leaning newspaper with a subscription to the Associated Press is afraid “to quote or link” to another U.S. newspaper for fear of a copyright infringement lawsuit, you know that the current system isn’t working.

Update: Bloggers are pretty scared of Righthaven too.  That’s why the Media Bloggers Association (official website) has filed an amicus brief on behalf of a hapless Righthaven defendant.  (Thanks to TechDirt for the doc and further analysis.)

Appealing fair use

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It looks like we are headed toward more clarity on the fair use front:  Righthaven is appealing one of its fair use losses to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals:

[U.S. District Judge] Hicks found the online posting by [defendant Michael] Nelson of the first eight sentences of a 30-sentence [Las Vegas] Review-Journal story didn’t amount to copyright infringement as it was protected by the “fair use” doctrine .

This ruling caused Righthaven to alter its litigation strategy to limit its lawsuits to entire stories, photos and graphics — rather than partial stories — that were reproduced without authorization.

This could get interesting.  The 9th Circuit is extremely pro-content industry, perhaps unsurprising given that Hollywood is located within its jurisdiction.  At least a ruling will provide additional clarity going forward.