NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Nevada · June 14, 2010 · Newsgathering
Las Vegas newspaper sues websites over use of content
Keywords: Copyright infringment; Fair use
The Las Vegas Review-Journal is suing dozens of websites that are using the newspaper’s content without permission.
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Righthaven LLC, a Nevada company that represents the paper, has filed 37 lawsuits since March against various organizations for copyright infringement, including blogs that discuss reforming marijuana laws, sports betting and real estate.
“We believe we’ve only scratched the surface of dealing with this issue,” Righthaven Chief Executive Steven Gibson said. “There are literally oceans of infringement out there.”
Review-Journal officials say the litigation is necessary to ensure the newspaper’s survival. When websites reproduce Review-Journal stories and post them online, they eliminate any reason for readers to visit the newspaper’s website, said Mark Hinueber, general counsel for Stephens Media, which owns the Review-Journal. Reducing Internet traffic hurts the newspaper’s ability to earn ad revenue online, where an increasing number of readers now get their news.
The problem isn’t unique to the Review-Journal; scores of media companies are searching for ways to protect the value of their content online. The Associated Press, for instance, is developing a news registry set to launch in July that will allow publishers to tag their content and track how it is being used on the web.
The Review-Journal’s aggressive approach -- 11 websites have been sued this month alone -- has angered those caught up in the litigation, who accuse Righthaven of unfairly and needlessly targeting small sites that receive little web traffic and don’t compete with the Review-Journal for readers.
Jack Wooden, who runs madjacksports.com, was sued by Righthaven in May after a Review-Journal basketball story was posted on his site. In his response to the lawsuit, Wooden explained that the story was posted by a third party on a message discussion board and that the story was removed once he was notified. Wooden also wrote that the webpage was viewed fewer than 30 times while the article was posted.
In a June 2 court filing, Wooden accused Righthaven of trying to “extort outrageous multi-thousand dollar settlements from far-flung ‘innocent infringers’ . . . where actual damages, if any, are in the $3 to $100 range and could be cured with a phone call or an email.”
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws was sued in March by Righthaven after a Review-Journal story about the drug appeared on its website via a third-party aggregator; the parties settled this month for $2,185. Attorney Marc Randazza, who represented the group, said damages were calculated by determining the maximum number of clicks the story could have received on NORML’s website – 247 – and multiplying that by $2.95, the amount the Review-Journal charges for readers to purchase articles from its archives. That total was then tripled.
Like Wooden, Randazza said Righthaven could have resolved the problem by placing a phone call or sending a letter. He accused Righthaven of needlessly clogging up the courts.
“This isn’t content piracy,” Randazza said. “This is people who were under the impression that what they were doing was permissible.”
Gibson, however, defended Righthaven’s approach. He said that by filing lawsuits, the Review-Journal is sending a strong message that copyright violations will not be tolerated. Merely sending cease-and-desist letters does not get the message out to the public, he said.
“We are having an impact … of making people aware of what copyright infringement is,” Gibson said. “People believe that if it’s on the Internet then it’s in the public domain, and that’s not right.”
Hinueber said that under the doctrine of fair use, which allows for some sharing of copyrighted material, the Review-Journal is not targeting websites that take a paragraph or two. Instead, the newspaper is targeting sites that republish significant portions of a story – in some cases the entire article, including the copyright notice itself.
“We’re not trying to squash dialogue on the Internet,” Hinueber said. “If you want to take a sentence or two … and link back to us, cool,” he said. “Just don’t take the entire story and cut and paste it on your site.”
Hinueber said it’s not fair for media organizations to gather the news at a significant cost, only to see their stories taken by others.
“There’s a lot of effort involved in gathering the news,” he said. “It requires blood, sweat and tears to go get this stuff.”
— Brian Westley, 5:34 pm
Copyright 2010 The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.
Comments: (9)
Comment by Pirate of the Scarabbean, Mon, Jun 14, 10:41pm
What does a failing newspaper do that's facing bankruptcy because nobody reads its propaganda? Just make a quick buck (for the lawyers) and sue everybody in frivolous lawsuits, for being nice enough to link to their pathetic excuse for a website. Bite the arm off of the ones who feed you links, without bothering for reciprocal links that raise search engine rankings. Guess they didn't teach webmastery in law skool.
The way to handle presumably mobbed-up bankrupt Las Vegas Review-Journal is to NEVER link to its site ever again, copy all facts out of a story, never name the source/author/title, then claim 100% of the facts for your site. Pit it's presumably mobbed-up lawfirm and its lawyers on your hit list, digging for dirt FOREVER. Case closed.
FYI the kosher nostra founded and run Vegas, with a kosher nostra lawyer as the current Vegas mayor. No wonder Vegas is a ghost town.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar_Goodman
desertpeace.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/the-kosher-nostra-gets-busted-in-las-vegas/
Learn how to litigate copyright cases without a lawyer, or send your family to law school. I did. I won in court.
Comment by Mike, Sat, Jun 19, 4:32pm
The website Majorwager.com posts Las vegas sun articles all the time one posters clevfan posts copyright material all day long at majorwager.
Comment by Steveo, Sun, Jun 20, 8:17am
capwins.com also uses copyright material but one of the owners mofome still lives with his mommy and daddy and could not cap his way out of a paper back. If you sue his site he threaten you to come and break your arm. You can tell its him when he comes he will be wearing a orange jumpsuit with Tenn Vol eye patches and a Vol jersey....Yeah he is 30 years old and has not grown up yet.
Comment by The Shrink, Sun, Jun 20, 9:01am
A site called EOG.com also copyrights newspapers materials The guy that owned the site was a big con man and ended up killing his wife and then himself when he got in to a big time gambling debt. (He is mofome hero) these gambling sites are bad sites and glad to see you go after them.
Comment by mofome, Sun, Jun 20, 9:34am
Please don't sue me I am 30 years old and still live off my mommy and daddy their house is in foreclousure. Any money you get from suing me would come out of their pocket. I was just fired as head mod at EOG.com and have no monthly income now.
Are you guys looking for a head mod????
Comment by JAL, Wed, Jul 21, 11:50pm
In the case I saw Righthaven wants to own the blog as a result of a site publishing articles or parts of articles ... appparently with the link to the paper.
"3. Direct GoDaddy and any successor domain name registrar for the Domain to lock the Domain and transfer control of the Domain to Righthaven"
So what is that about? They want $$ and to destroy a blog?
Do these people not know a phone call or letter is sufficient?
They're a newspaper -- run an article on it.
Someone should start an anchor pool on how long this paper will last (unless the administration starts bailing out papers too.)
Comment by Kale, Thu, Jul 22, 11:16am
The Las Vegas Review - Journal must think they can make a few bucks by taking scraps of $$ after their contingency fee attorneys sue everything in sight.
Shame on them, and good riddance to them and their ilk once the money for ink dries up. Is it any wonder newspapers are dying like dinosaurs?
Comment by Jake, Thu, Jul 22, 12:17pm
Pathetic excuse. A gasp from a dying industry.
Comment by Merlin, Mon, Jul 26, 2:29am
I have an idea. If they REALLY want to clog up the courts, let's help them. everyone who has any saved articles from ArmedCitizen....Post them all to FaceBook, MySpace, and send them via E-Mail to all your friends, and tell them to send to all thier friends. What they gonna do?
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