Righthaven LLC has sued more than 100 bloggers and website operators around the country for copyright infringement. It's scared the bejeezus out of a lot of small time operations. Some have settled and some have vowed to fight the Righthaven machine saying the company is engaging in legal terrorism.
Texas resident Colleen Lynn hasn't been sued, but she scrambled to remove RJ stories from her site when she heard Righthaven was prowling the web looking for people to sue. She also set up a blog to help inform and train bloggers on how to avoid being sued by Righthaven. After previously dismissing (at least to us) the Righthaven case, the highly influential Electronic Frontier Foundation is now actively seeking solid cases to defend against Righthaven.
And in another weird twist, Righthaven has sued Sharon Angle over entire RJ articles she's posted on her website. That creates a wrinkle because of the RJ's (Sherm Frederick's) traditional dislike of Harry Reid. We revisit the Righthaven cases.
GUESTS
Colleen Ray, blogger and activist, Lynn Media Group
Eric Goldman, Assoc Prof, Santa Clara U School of Law
Steve Friess, freelance journalist and blogger, VegasHappensHere.com
Peter Menell, Prof of Law and Dir of Berkeley Ctr for Law and Technology, UC Berkeley School of Law