Ars Technica/Wired magazine have taken great interest in the rise and now fall of copyright troll Righthaven, which used abusive lawsuits to shake down websites for payouts only to see judges start rejecting their claims.
Now, they are taken great joy in a report that a defendant has moved to dismantle copyright troll Righthaven:
one of the defendants it unsuccessfully sued for infringement asked a judge to allow seizure of the firm’s assets — with the help of the U.S. Marshals, if necessary.
The legal filing dropped moments after the Friday deadline expired for the litigation factory to pay defendant Wayne Hoehn $34,000 in legal fees. Hoehn successfully defended himself against a Righthaven copyright lawsuit seeking large damages for posting the entirety of a Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial to a small online message board.
Righthaven had asked U.S. District Judge Philip Pro of Nevada to stay the fee award, saying it might slip into bankruptcy if forced to pay…
A filing in the case shows that Randazza wants the court to “authorize the U.S. Marshalls to execute Hoehn’s judgment through seizure of Righthaven’s bank accounts, real and personal property, and intangible intellectual property rights for levy, lien, auction or other treatment appropriate for satisfaction of Hoehn’s judgment.” (.pdf)
Most of Righthaven’s clients have dropped the firm and the death of the company by lawsuit is poetic justice for a firm built on abusing the legal system.
Given a number of judicial decisions affirming the “fair use” rights of websites to post individual news articles, the chief legacy of Righthaven’s campaign may be ironically an expansion of fair use by website owners given the judicial clarity the rejection of Righthaven’s claims have given.
So good speed unto death Righthaven 