Judge rejects Stephens Media, Righthaven scheme

U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt on Tuesday (June 14) has rejected an attempt by Righthaven and Las Vegas-based Stephens Media to transfer copyrights and sue bloggers and other Internet users who use news content generated by Stephens Media properties.

Judge Hunt was direct in his ruling that Stephens Media could not simply transfer a “right to sue” to Righthaven.

“This conclusion is flagrantly false — to the point that the claim is disingenuous, if not outright deceitful,” Hunt noted in his filing. (A copy of the ruling is available through this report from techdirt.)

Continuing, Judge Hunt had this to say about Righthaven’s attempt to legally justify its “ownership” of Stephens Media content: “Making this failure more egregious, not only did Righthaven fail to identify Stephens Media as an interested party in this suit, the Court believes that Righthaven failed to disclose Stephens Media as an interested party in any of its approximately 200 cases filed in this District. Accordingly, the Court orders Righthaven to show cause, in writing, no later than two (2) weeks from the date of this order, why it should not be sanctioned for this flagrant misrepresentation to the Court.”

The deal between Stephens Media — which owns the Times Record in Fort Smith, Press Argus Courier in Van Buren and numerous weekly newspapers in the Fort Smith metro area — and Righthaven was announced in May 2010. Stephens Media President Sherman Frederick initially reported that Righthaven, now assigned the copyrights to material produced by Stephens Media, would begin to sue any individual or organization engaging in unauthorized use of the content.

Righthaven is partially owned by a company whose investors include Warren Stephens, who owns the investment group that owns Stephens Media. WEHCO Media, the Walter Hussman company that publishes the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Chattanooga Times Free Press and numerous other papers, is also a Righthaven client.

As of May 6, Righthaven had filed at least 275 copyright infringement lawsuits, and collected $472,500 in settlements, according to a website that tracks the effort. Righthaven’s practices have been controversial because they issue a lawsuit before politely asking a blogger, non-profit or others to remove the content.

Judge Hunt previously agreed to a request by Laurence Pulgram, an attorney for the Democratic Underground, to unseal the agreement between Stephens Media and Righthaven. The argument of Pulgram and Kurt Opsahl, an attorney for the Electronic Freedom Foundation, is that Righthaven does not legitimately own the copyrights and has no standing to sue.

Techdirt had this to say about the Tuesday ruling: “What may be interesting is to see if any of the dozens of folks who already settled come after Righthaven now and demand their money back. … That could make for an interesting followup legal battle. All in all, this is a huge win against copyright trolling.”