Well, I made up the bankruptcy part, but they have lost in a Las Vegas court. Judge ruled excerpts are indeed Fair Use. The trolls now claim they won't sue anyone who posts less than 75% of an article.Maybe they should start advising their clients to write shorter articles?
| The article further notes: |
But to dock that legal safe harbor, a site has to register an official contact point for DMCA takedown notices, a process that involves filling out a form and mailing a $105 check to the government. An examination of Righthaven's lawsuits targeting user content suggests it's specifically going after sites that failed to fill out that paperwork.
| Let's see what the judges think of that: the failure to file a form and pay a fee versus the willingness and ability of a website owner to remove offending material promptly upon request, form or no form. That to me sounds like a 'minor oversight' of infringement and one that judges will be looking to resolve in favor of the website, particularly small, non-commercial websites. I'm just guessing here, but I'm going to bet that in six months RH will be out of business and its owner will be on to other things in life. |