Righthaven copyright troll's victims send in US marshals to seize its assets

Righthaven, the copyright trolling organization that misrepresented its title to the copyrights of many of the newspaper articles at issue in its lawsuits against website operators, is now on the brink of bankruptcy. The US Marshals in Nevada have been authorized to seize $63,720.80 from it in cash or assets to pay the fines and fees owed for one of its failed legal actions. For more of Righthaven's keystone kops antics, see our earlier stories.

In August, the case Righthaven v. Hoehn was tossed by a federal judge in Nevada, who went a step further and declared that defendant Wayne Hoehn's complete copy of a newspaper article in a sub-forum on the site "Madjack Sports" was fair use. On August 15, the judge awarded $34,045.50 to the Randazza Legal Group, which represented Hoehn. Righthaven, which had spent so much time thundering to defendants about just how badly the federal courts would make them pay... didn't pay.

Instead, it filed a flurry of appeals alleging (among other things) that having to pay the money would involve "the very real threat of being forced out of business or being forced to seek protection through bankruptcy." Righthaven contended that it could eventually win the case on appeal and thus should not be bankrupted before it had the chance to make its case.

But the increasingly disorganized organization couldn't even get its appellate filings in on time. Yesterday, Righthaven had to admit that it missed the October 31 deadline for its opening brief in the case. It blamed the problem on a "misunderstanding," then noted it would need a few more weeks to actually write the brief, since "Righthaven’s counsel is scheduled to undergo a surgical procedure for which it is estimated that he will be recovering outside of the office for approximately one week."

US Marshals turned loose to collect $63,720.80 from Righthaven

• [Guest]

  I suspect their lawyer is having his jaw surgically removed from the floor this week.

• [GTMoogle]

  Lemme guess, they’re a limited liability corporation that pays salaries and bonuses high enough that the money is gone as soon as it comes in?

  • [Mordicai]

    I suspect your cynicism is well earned, but it sets a good precedent.

• [Toffer99]

  Mmmm, feel the warm glow of schadenfreude.

• [Jamie Sue]

  Schadenfreude.  It’s my favorite feeling.  :)

• [Erin W]

  Cue the sad trombones.

• [daev]

  Ahhhh…. such a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling on a cold November day…

• [elix]

  Score one for the good guys. But, the lesson the other trolls are going to take from this is, “Make sure you have competent legal counsel and don’t leave it until the last second.”

• [scav]

  @elix:twitter Yeah, but the lesson is “Make sure you have competent counsel and don’t leave it until the last second, AND have standing to sue, AND have an actual case, OR ELSE”.

  Plus having to have competent counsel and making the effort to have real standing to sue, dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s makes it more expensive. The business model of threatening hundreds to extract tribute from the few that roll over stops being so profitable if everyone pushes back.