The great experiment in copyright trolling that is Righthaven appears to be nearing an end.Righthaven, which was founded more than a year ago to monetize print news content through copyright infringement lawsuits, has suffered a myriad of courtroom setbacks in recent months. Among them, it was sanctioned $5,000 for misleading a federal judge, ordered to pay $34,000 for an opponent's legal fees (.pdf), and was told over and again by judges that it has no legal standing to even file the lawsuits.
With all those issues now on appeal, the litigation factory's machinery is grinding to a halt. A review of court records shows Righthaven has not filed a new lawsuit in two months, after a flurry of about 275 lawsuits since its launch at the beginning of last year. A court filing indicates there have already been layoffs at Righthaven's Las Vegas headquarters (.pdf), and even some already-filed lawsuits are falling by the wayside, because Righthaven isn't serving the defendants with the paperwork.
Righthaven chief executive Steve Gibson confirmed by telephone that his company has stopped filing new lawsuits, pending appellate rulings that could take months or even years to filter through the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Die assholes, die! (in a business sense and not a life threatening way)
Agreed and thanks for making the distinction :-)