Newspapers & Lawsuits

United States
July 24, 2010 6:41pm CST
If you use a portion of content from a newspaper in a blog, you can get sued. Why? Some newspapers are using lawsuits as a cynical income stream in their fight against competition in this recession economy. - CEO of fledgling Las Vegas-based Righthaven makes no bones about this. He has begun buying out the copyrights to newspaper content for this sole purpose. He says he’s making money. - “We believe it’s the best solution out there, Media companies’ assets are very much their copyrights. These companies need to understand and appreciate that those assets have value more than merely the present advertising revenues." Gibson said. - The vision is to bling news content on the back end, by searching the internet for infringing copies of client’s articles. Gibson then will sue for $150,000 for a single infringement relying on harsh copyright penalties for the fast buck. - Since Righthaven’s formation in March, the company has filed so far 80 federal lawsuits against website operators and individual bloggers who’ve re-posted articles from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. - Gibson wants to expand to other clients. - Gibson should, however, take note. the MPAA and RIAA have not had a lot of luck stemming the flow of infringement. Lawsuits weren't a money maker for the two media companies either, when legal costs are taken in to consideration. The lawsuits have been a public relations disaster for them as well.
2 responses
elmiko
@elmiko (6630)
• United States
25 Jul 10
the newspaper business is probably the doing the worst financially out of any business in the economy. its apparent their looking for money any way they can by the filing of these lawsuits. the problem is when filing these lawsuits on bloggers or other website for using their content online is even if they sue their going to almost never get the money they expect. most bloggers don't even have over $150,000 to conpensate the newspapers for any extra money they might get after they pay off the lawyer. the only person here that seems to be making any money is lawyer gibson whos no doubt using the newspaper industry. they should of known better not to even file lawsuits for that high of a fee. the newspaper industry is screwed.
1 person likes this
abitosunshine
@abitosunshine (765)
• United States
25 Jul 10
Personally, I can understand the newspapers being concerned about copyright theft. As a writer, I have similar concerns for anything I write. It's one thing to quote a line or two from someone else, while giving them proper credit; it's another thing to repost somebody else's work as your own or to even post an entire article of someone else's, even giving credit. I am a member of several social networking sites and see it all the time, with writing and with graphics. In fact, it's one of my pet peeves, as a writer and as a graphic designer.
1 person likes this
CraftyCorner
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
25 Jul 10
This guy's going after the 'line or two' people and those who give credit too. Even those who link to the original article are not safe. For example, I link to your page where you write something, this guy can come and sue me just to make a fast buck, you aren't even involved and have no say in this situation. - MyLot, for example, linked to you when they sent the email alerting me that I had a response to this discussion. If this guy purchased the copyright of your response with out your knowledge, he would own your work, and could sue MyLot for linking to your work which is of benefit to you. You would have no rights left to your work if he bought it behind your back. Song thieves do this all the time.