Comments by user: kbingh
There is no doubt now that Righthaven is hiding assets from the US marshals. BK may be a problem for Righthaven because it will force them to disclose all assets and bank accounts. If there is anything untowards in them it could open up the players to criminal investigations.
Seizing the "copyrights" from Righthaven is important because it will take away their ability to ever use them again but more importantly it may stop Stephens Media from using them as well. Stephens Media may either have to come clean and admit the copyright assignments were a sham or risk losing them entirely.
murrayburns
Fan fiction is either films or books or other works based on popular works such as short Star Wars based films,. These are usually done by armatures and in most cases are not done for money but as the name implies for devotion to the original such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter etc. Now even though these are copyright infringement since most do not seek permission but many movie makers, authors, etc either embrace it or at least tolerate it because the fan fiction is a good marketing tool tends to enhance the original works popularity rather than diminish it. George Lucas for one has encouraged Fan Films and even attended a Fan Film Award show where he presented the award for the Best Star Wars Fan Film.
Others on the other hand either don't understand the benefit or they are more interested in absolute control rather than marketing building and growing their fan base.
Where this fits it the RJ is just like fan films bloggers linking to news stories benefits the original source but the RJ and Stephens Media decided that absolute control was more important and as you said they also thought they were on to some huge money making bonanza but as we have seen their projections for success was wildly misjudged.
Murrayburns
I can't disagree with anything you said.
There are many issues with fan fiction when others base stories on existing copyrighted works. Many authors and even some movie makers encourage fan fiction because it can make their own product more popular but others have objected and even sued for fan fiction. The problems usually occur if the fan fiction was done for profit and particularly if it involves a significant amount of money.
MurrayBurns
You are right about news stories having less copyright protection than original novels or original works. For instance, anyone can write about what they read in a news story and there is no infringement if they only paraphrase and not use the same words but if someone were to write a story about Harry Potter and the Wizarding World they could be nailed for copyright infringement even though no passages or even the same story line were used.
When you get right down to it what the RJ was objecting to was non-journalists encroaching on their turf. They saw the Internet and blogs in particular as a threat and devised an ill-conceived way to repress their competition through the legal system. In the end judges have decided that since news stories are based on facts and not original ideas that they deserve less protection and in a free democratic society that is good since the dissemination of information is vital to maintaining a free and democratic society.
If Righthaven emptied those accounts in anticipation of the seizures then crimes have been committed.
Shawn Mangano's attitude towards the seizures is shocking. He in essence said it was no big deal because it was less than $1000. This disrespect and utter contempt for the rule of law that Righthaven is presenting is appalling and shows just how morally bankrupt these people are.
Not just disbarred but behind bars.
Just the fact that Righthaven is spending money outside of normal business operations such as filing appeals, paying outside lawyers etc shows an attempt to defraud the courts and the prevailing parties such as Mr Hoehn.
Righthaven is filing appeals when they clearly cannot afford to do so.
Scott
I think that has been well covered that the law does not require warnings or take-down notices however failure to do so clearly hurt Righthaven cases in front of judges.
When no effort is made to resolve or mitigate a dispute outside of a law-suit first it is rightfully seen by judges as an abuse of the system.
Take-down notices are important because most people will comply and if they do not comply it strengthens your case if it does go to court.
Righthaven saga has shown the folly in suing first and asking questions later.
Copyright holders are required to weigh fair use in deciding whether to pursue action against anyone who posts their copyrighted materials. Righthaven obviously did not take fair use in consideration at all in fact they don't believe in fair use period.
The irony is that Sherman Frederick lifted as much, if not more, from GametimeIP than the Democratic Underground did but Righthaven and Stephens Media saw fit to sue them. Stephens media cannot claim innocence on this either because the SAA gave Stephens Media veto power over any litigation target.