Righthaven drops suit against autistic blogger, warns other targets not to rest easy

[Newsjock]

Source: Westword

​Righthaven LLC, the Nevada firm that's been suing for copyright infringement on behalf of companies like MediaNews Group, owner of the Denver Post, picked a sympathetic target when it went after Brian Hill, a twenty-year-old, chronically ill, mildly autistic hobby blogger. Amid hugely negative publicity, the company is now dropping its lawsuit. But its latest filing criticizes Hill and his lawyer and warns others being sued that they won't get off so easily.

With the help of pro bono attorney David Kerr, Hill filed a motion to dismiss the Righthaven suit -- and the tone of last week's ruling by U.S. District Judge John Kane denying the company's request for an extension suggested an antipathy for its approach.

... In its notice of voluntary dismissal, on view below, Righthaven's attorneys write that they were unaware of Hill's medical condition prior to suing -- although they stress that his health is "not a basis for excusing him of liability." They also argue that Hill's "incessant use of the Internet as a means to post inflammatory statements about Righthaven and about these legal proceedings say more about his cognitive ability than one would otherwise surmise from the press statements made by his counsel."

... What about the thirty or more individuals or websites sued by Righthaven around when the outfit zeroed in on Hill? The notice declares that observers should pay heed, because the dismissal "in no way exonerates any other defendant in any other Righthaven action for stealing copyright protected material and republishing such material without consent."

Read more: http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2011/04/brian_hill_righthaven_drops_lawsuit_autistic_blogger.php

[Kelvin Mace]

1. I want to see sanctions against these guys

since they completely manufactured the situation in order to file suits.

They are abusing the legal system and should be disbarred.

[tcaudilllg]

2. Agreed.

[tblue37]

4. A friend of mine--a law student--is currently writing a paper about the whole

Righthaven thing.

[RamboLiberal]

5. If it's ever published on the web please post link

Be a great read.

[tblue37]

6. For sure. But it's more likely to end up in a law review.

I keep sending him RH articles I find here on DU, though, so DU has been helping him with his research all along. He has still had to do all the legal research by himself, but DU has let him know every time something new happens in one of RH's cases!

He got into the subject in the first place because I suggested it when he was seeking an appropriate current legal issue to write about--and of course I suggested it because of DU. When he raised it as a topic with the professor overseeing the paper, the guy loved the topic, but was surprised because he was unaware of what RH was up to.

[Odin2005]

3. These fuckers are pure EVIL!

[harmonicon]

7. pure evil?

They suck, no doubt, and what they are doing is legally very dubious. However, I'm afraid that this is what we as a society are going to get when we place profit over all else, and continue to hang onto incredibly outmoded models of copyright in a world of digital information exchange.

edited to add, in case it wasn't clear:
the real evil at hand here is capitalism run amok, not these bastards who are just a symptom of it.