Wednesday, December 08, 2010

When Bad Lawsuits Go Good

I'm truly excited that Democratic Underground is skewering Righthaven, the jerk suing bloggers for copyright infringement without so much as a warning to remove material.

Righthaven is attempting to make a business out of suing Internet websites for copyright infringement. It has filed 180 copyright actions so far —without ever first asking that a work be removed from the target website—in each case alleging “willful infringement” and attempting to extract settlements by threats of statutory damages (up to $150,000), attorneys’ fees and seizure of the domain name.

Apparently, Righthave decided to sue Democratic Underground and that was the wrong dog to poke. DU hired a law firm and blew so many holes in Righthaven's arguments that Righthaven wants to withdraw the suit. I hope DU manages to get legal fees and damages for this nuisance.