Righthaven, which has made a business out of suing people for alleged copyright infringement (see background stories here) has not filed a suit in two months according to a new report from Wired, which suggests that “the great experiment in copyright trolling ” may be coming to an end.
For some reason, that seems hard to believe, considering the amount of fight and persistence Righthaven has shown thus far. They have lost a number of key suits only to keep appealing. Once, a case was thrown out only to be immediately refiled by Righthaven.
Judges have tended to rule on the side of fair use, and Righthaven has had to pay legal fees for the defense.
Righthaven appears to be waiting to see how its appeals turn out before proceeding further. CEO Steve Gibson is quoted as saying, “It certainly seems to be prudent to see how all of these cases come out in the wash.”
“The cases continue to show that their business model is not a viable business model,” Kurt Opsahl of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has defended people against Righthaven, and has been very vocal in its opposition of the company, is quoted as saying.
It’s going to be very interesting to see how the Righthaven story progresses. It should have major implications for fair use. Some have all but declared the company’s quest dead. The aforementioned Wired report by David Kravets says Righthaven is on “life support.”
Jeff Roberts at Paid Content says, “The Righthaven model now appears moribund.”
Righthaven also got rid of in-house lawyer Steven Ganim, who participated in 53 Righthaven suits. That doesn’t exactly send out positive waves for the company.