Copyrights, be aware of them.

[nalioth]

Re: Copywrites, be aware of them.

I just had a discussion with two professors, including one that teaches Media Law, in the Mass Comm department and the message I got is this. What they are doing is way out deep in the gray area because there is very little case law at this point. Righthaven is using the fact that they can do what they are doing, for the moment, to extort (you are right about this, legal or not) money in the form of out of court settlements.
<snip>
This is a very new legal area and the case law is being written now. As long as there is gray area, there are going to be unethical groups that will take advantage of it to make money.

Unfortunately, the mass majority of their shakedowns never make it to court (i.e. a case made)

All of their cases that have made to court have been dismissed, as I wrote earlier.

There will never be any "case law" on their extortion successes, because the people that pay are never officially sued.

What Righthaven is doing is no different than someone calling a random person out of the phone book and telling them "I'm going to come over to your address and beat you/your loved ones up if you don't pay me." From the court cases that have been heard, they obviously have no judicial reason to be acting the way they are.

 

[TexMex247]

What is the world coming to? Soon there will be nothing left but cockroaches and lawyers !

 

[Ric_Knight]

Re: Copywrites, be aware of them.

Unfortunately, the mass majority of their shakedowns never make it to court (i.e. a case made)

All of their cases that have made to court have been dismissed, as I wrote earlier.

There will never be any "case law" on their extortion successes, because the people that pay are never officially sued.

What Righthaven is doing is no different than someone calling a random person out of the phone book and telling them "I'm going to come over to your address and beat you/your loved ones up if you don't pay me." From the court cases that have been heard, they obviously have no judicial reason to be acting the way they are.

You are again correct in your points with the exception of never seeing the inside of a court room. I doubt that many bloggers that are threatened with a law suite will fight it because of the cost involved, but there are organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation who are seeking a remedy against this kind of intrusion. There has already been some success getting them to back down.

Rightheaven will push the wrong button at some point and cause a class action suite to be filed against them, which they will likely lose, and that is where the case law will really start. I would suggest that anyone blogging or running a forum site become familiar with the EFF, in fact, if you are a regular user of the internet it would be a good to know who they are.

 

[308nato]

Another gun forum I was on (American gun owner) was sued over an atticle someone put on a thread and now
they are no longer on the internet, was probably this same outfit.

 

[nalioth]

Another gun forum I was on (American gun owner) was sued over an atticle someone put on a thread and now
they are no longer on the internet, was probably this same outfit.

They were not sued.

They were threatened with a suit, and asked to pay up, and their owners decided to close up shop instead.

Sad.

 

[leonidas]

Re: Copywrites, be aware of them.

You're a little behind the times.

Righthaven Says It Will Stop Suing Over News Excerpts

This type of frivolous lawsuit is going to get the law firms involved disbarred. It is nothing more than extortion couched in legal terms.

I work with many attorneys and their typical OM is to sue first, cuz people don't have the time nor the funds to fight it properly. These guys are out for the suits, rather than protecting copyrighted material. I believe there is a more diabolical reason behind their madness, but I won't get into it here.

 

[tcbeavers1]

Re: Copywrites, be aware of them.

Thanks for informing us.

 

[Texasjack]

We all agree they are a bunch of douches.

So let's all agree to do what we can to protect this site from those greedy bastards.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

Anyone else realize how similar this all sounds to the way the IRS operates? lol

 

[45tex]

Will comply
Used to do pro photo work, now I cannot get a quick print at walmart as my pictures look too "professional." Its a sad world. Was once told my copyright release form did not look "wordy enough" at a drug store that refused to print some pics to use as proofs.

 

[Wolfwood]

uhh... guys... i jsut had a horrible thought.

EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE NAMES IS COPYRIGHTED!!!

we are doomed.

 

[Wolfwood]

Anyone else realize how similar this all sounds to the way the IRS operates? lol

yes.

 

[Ric_Knight]

Will comply
Used to do pro photo work, now I cannot get a quick print at walmart as my pictures look too "professional." Its a sad world. Was once told my copyright release form did not look "wordy enough" at a drug store that refused to print some pics to use as proofs.

Get an Epson 1400 or 1900 and be done with it. If you take good pics then you should be able to show them off.

 

[lalonguecarabine]

I personally think it's so decent of these types of people to show us all what immense jerks they are, rather than leave us wondering.

 

[45tex]

Get an Epson 1400 or 1900 and be done with it. If you take good pics then you should be able to show them off.

Would love to but I'm color blind. I tend to turn people green. I found a great local pro-printer a few years ago and pay them a bit extra to color correct everything I do for other people. Husband and wife operation and I'm told by customers that she has a great eve. His work is just as good. When my daughter was still at home she was darn good at it to. I have an eye for composure, but not for the colors.

 

[country_boy]

10/4 never did any of that, for sure wont now.

 

[Brad92]

That is so gay. Not surprisingly, the Daily Democrat is listed. I guess they don't want to be linked so we can't say derogatory things about em.

 

[M. Sage]

uhh... guys... i jsut had a horrible thought.

EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE NAMES IS COPYRIGHTED!!!

we are doomed.

Actually, they're Trademarked.

 

[mgh]

The world as a whole is turning upside down as of late.

To bad these ass-hats don't try to sue facebook, I believe Mark Zuckerberg has a few bucks to counter sue them back into the stoneage.

 

[Ric_Knight]

The world as a whole is turning upside down as of late.

To bad these ass-hats don't try to sue facebook, I believe Mark Zuckerberg has a few bucks to counter sue them back into the stoneage.

They're scumbags...not stupid...:-)