Home Tech Support

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Friday, 10 September 2010

Righthaven Copyright Suits are like Property Repossession in the Extreme

Posted on 14:21 by Unknown
Why do I say this? (It's from this article (Mike Masnick, TechDirt).) Read on, dear readers.
I have previously written about patent troll company Intellectual Ventures and how they claim to invent new things when all they do (aside from not inventing a single thing) is buy other companies' patents for the sole purpose of suing people who infringe upon those patents. Well, that concept seems to have been extended to Righthaven, which is a copyright troll. All it does is buy newspaper articles' copyrights for the sole purpose of suing people who infringe upon these copyrights, and it, unlike Intellectual Ventures, seems totally honest about its motives — instead of couching its actions in language about how newspapers cannot afford to lose in the fight against copyright infringement and piracy, its CEO essentially says straight up that it's out to make the big bucks by filing as many lawsuits as possible. Furthermore, it's going after people who write content online who copy even small portions (e.g. sentences, small paragraphs) of published articles and give proper attribution (and who link back to the original articles); I think this is a violation of the ideas of fair use and attribution, all for the purpose of making money.
So what's the news here? Well, not only is Righthaven suing the pants off of some websites that republish small parts of articles and attribute and link to them properly, it's even demanding that these sites hand over their domain names. What?
The TechDirt article is probably right (or so I hope) that this is most likely a scare tactic, in that most websites would rather settle the lawsuit out-of-court than fight, lose, and actually give up the domain name, as almost all defendants have settled out of court, while none have actually ceded their domain names. That said, assume for a moment that Righthaven is serious about its demands.
What does this mean? Imagine for a moment that Jill stole a lamp from a store to decorate his house. The analog of what Righthaven is doing is if after Jill returned the lamp to the store (under the force of the law) and served his jail time, the store owner further demanded possession of Jill's entire house and its contents.
No, that isn't quite accurate either. Imagine again that instead of Jill stealing a lamp, Jill borrowed a screwdriver from Dave to fix Bonnie's bicycle, told Dave what she was going to use the screwdriver for and when she would return it, and told Bonnie who the owner of the screwdriver was and when she would return it. Righthaven's actions are like Dave accusing Jill of stealing the screwdriver, taking her to court for it, and demanding repossession of both Jill's house and Bonnie's bicycle.
Is that a good analogy? It's something I thought of at the spur of the moment, so let me know how I can improve on this in the comments. In any case, isn't the whole sage just ridiculous?
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in abuse of copyright, copyright, patent, repossession, Righthaven, troll | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Long-Term Review: openSUSE 12.2 KDE
    I did this long-term review on my normal UROP desktop computer with the 64-bit edition of the OS. Follow the jump to see how it fared. Also ...
  • How-To: Make Xfce Like Unity
    This is more or less the sequel to this post. It came about because I wanted to see if it would be easy to make Xfce look like Apple's ...
  • SourceForge, Pages, and Respins
    I may have mentioned this in a previous post, but I have added new static pages to this blog. I wanted to mention this again as I will proba...
  • Review: Trisquel 4.0.1 LTS "Taranis"
    Main Screen + Main Menu I've read a couple of reviews of Trisquel GNU/Linux, an Ubuntu-based distribution which aims to remove as much n...
  • Review: Fedora 18 "Spherical Cow" GNOME
    Although I have reviewed a number of Fedora remixes, I haven't reviewed proper Fedora since the very first review/comparison test I post...
  • Review: KDE 4.6
    A couple days ago, KDE 4.6 was released for the world to enjoy. It boasts myriad bug fixes, new features for applications like Dolphin and M...
  • A Disappointing Review of #! 10 "Statler"
    Before I say anything else, I'd just like to say that the reason why I haven't posted anything in 2 weeks has been due to me being q...
  • Review: Linux Mint 14.1 "Nadia" MATE + GNOME 3/Cinnamon
    Wow. It's been a really long time since I've had the time to sit down and do a review like this. The reason for that is because this...
  • Review: Pardus 2013 KDE
    My spring break is coming to an end (I only have 1.5 more days), so I figured it might be nice to do another review while I still can. Today...
  • Review: Slackware 13.1
    KDE Main Screen I never envisioned myself trying out any of the more advanced distributions like Slackware, Arch, or Gentoo, but having trie...

Categories

  • 11
  • 13
  • 1st birthday
  • 200th post
  • 2010
  • 2011
  • 2012
  • 2D
  • 3 Idiots
  • 3D
  • 4
  • 600-series
  • 600C
  • 670C
  • 7
  • 7z
  • 8 glasses every day
  • A Short History of Nearly Everything
  • Abiword
  • abuse of copyright
  • Acer
  • ACTA
  • Activities
  • Adafruit
  • admission
  • Adobe
  • Adobe Flash
  • advertisement
  • Afghanistan
  • agricultural company
  • airport security
  • Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
  • amarok
  • amateur
  • amazon
  • Amy Chua
  • anaconda
  • android
  • AP
  • apology
  • apple
  • applications
  • April fools
  • aptosid
  • Arch
  • ArchBang
  • Arizona
  • asana
  • asthma
  • asus
  • Athena
  • ati
  • ATT
  • AUSTRUMI
  • autofailblog
  • autonomy
  • avatar
  • ayurveda
  • bad experience
  • ban
  • basmati rice
  • Ben Kevan
  • bias
  • Big Bang
  • big brother
  • Bill Bryson
  • biography
  • birthday
  • blackbox
  • blind
  • blog
  • blog catalog
  • Blogger
  • Blogilo
  • Blogspot
  • BMW
  • Bodhi Linux
  • bombing in russia
  • Book Review
  • bootloader
  • boson
  • brand name
  • break
  • breakfast cereal
  • Bridge Linux
  • British Chiropractic Association
  • broadcast
  • browser
  • BSD
  • Burj Khalifa
  • Bursts
  • bus
  • cable
  • calculus
  • cambridge
  • canonical
  • capitalism
  • care
  • Carolus Linnaeus
  • cell
  • cell phone
  • CentOS
  • central planning
  • CGS
  • Chak De India
  • Chakra
  • Chamber of Commerce
  • chat
  • cheese webcam booth
  • chemistry
  • chicken
  • chicken tax
  • china
  • choice
  • choqok
  • Chrome OS
  • Chromium
  • chrysler
  • Cinnamon
  • Cinnarch
  • City ID
  • class
  • codecs
  • coffee
  • college
  • commodore
  • Commonwealth Games
  • comparison
  • compatibility
  • competition
  • compositing
  • conference
  • congress
  • copyright
  • copyright infringement
  • corruption
  • counterfeiting
  • courts
  • Creative Commons
  • crunchbang linux
  • cryptography
  • crystal
  • CSS
  • CTKArchLive
  • custom linux spin
  • CwF + RtB
  • Daniel Craig
  • Das U-Blog by Prashanth
  • DEB
  • debian
  • debt
  • Dedoimedo
  • deficit
  • democrat
  • denial
  • Department of Justice
  • derivative
  • desktop effects
  • Die Another Day
  • disability
  • disappointment
  • disney
  • distribution
  • DMCA
  • DNA
  • dolphin
  • donation
  • dormitory
  • dream
  • DreamWorks
  • driver
  • DRM
  • Dubai
  • dvd
  • earthquake
  • Ease
  • ebook
  • economics
  • Edmunds
  • Edubuntu
  • education
  • educational
  • EFF
  • electricity
  • elementary
  • empathy
  • Enlightenment
  • enzo tedeschi
  • EPDFView
  • epiphany
  • essay
  • Evince
  • exam
  • excitement
  • eye of gnome
  • F-Spot
  • facebook
  • Faenza
  • familiarity
  • family
  • FBI
  • Featured Comments
  • fedora
  • Fedora Core
  • Feedbooks
  • felicia
  • Fermat's Last Theorem
  • Ferris Bueller's Day Off
  • fifa
  • file sharing
  • first
  • First Amendment
  • first sale
  • Fluxbox
  • Folder View
  • FOLLOW-UP
  • football
  • ford
  • free software
  • FreeTechie
  • frequency
  • FreshOS
  • frisk
  • frivolous
  • Fuduntu
  • Fusion
  • future
  • FVWM
  • Gabrielle Giffords
  • Gauss
  • GDM
  • gentoo
  • George Lucas
  • GhostBSD
  • GIMP
  • Gloobus
  • gloria
  • glyn moody
  • gm
  • Gnash
  • gnome
  • GNOME 3
  • GNOME Activities
  • GNOME Shell
  • gnu
  • Gnumeric
  • google
  • Google Docs
  • Gottfried Leibniz
  • government intervention
  • gparted
  • graduation
  • graphics card
  • GRUB
  • gtk+
  • GUI
  • gwenview
  • gwibber
  • Hackers
  • happy new year
  • hardware
  • Harry Potter
  • health
  • heartbeat
  • Higgs
  • high speed rail
  • hollywood
  • homeland security
  • homeless
  • honda
  • How To Train Your Dragon
  • How-To
  • hp
  • HTC
  • HTML
  • i386
  • ibm
  • Ice
  • Iceweasel
  • identity
  • In Defense of Food
  • incentives
  • Inception
  • india
  • Infinite Monkey Theorem
  • Inside Line
  • installation
  • Intel
  • intellectual monopoly
  • intellectual property
  • internet explorer
  • internship
  • Investopedia
  • ipad
  • iphone
  • iphone OS
  • ipod touch
  • Iraq
  • iron man 2
  • Isaac Newton
  • isadora
  • issues
  • ITworld
  • jailbreak
  • James Bond
  • james cameron
  • japanese
  • jill sobule
  • jim lynch
  • jon
  • Julia
  • Julian Assange
  • justice
  • KahelOS
  • Katya
  • KDE
  • kde 3.5
  • KDE 4
  • kde 4.4
  • KDE 4.5
  • KDE 4.6
  • KDE 4.7
  • KDE Activities
  • KevJumba
  • keyboard
  • Kinect
  • KOffice
  • kolourpaint
  • Kongoni
  • konqueror
  • Kopete
  • Kororaa
  • kpackagekit
  • KPresenter
  • kubuntu
  • kwin
  • Lage Raho Munna Bhai
  • laptop
  • last week of school
  • Latvia
  • law
  • lawsuit
  • learning experience
  • LED
  • legal fees
  • lenny
  • Leonard Mlodinow
  • LG
  • liar
  • libel
  • liberal
  • LibreOffice
  • LILO
  • linux
  • linux live cd
  • Linux Mint
  • Linux Today
  • Lisa
  • live cd
  • live dvd
  • live usb
  • long
  • Lubuntu
  • lunatic
  • LXAppearance
  • lxde
  • LXPanel
  • mac
  • mac os x
  • Madbox
  • madurai
  • Mageia
  • mainstream tech press
  • malware
  • mandriva
  • Manjaro Linux
  • marginal cost
  • mark shuttleworth
  • Mark Zuckerberg
  • market
  • market share
  • massacre
  • mastery
  • MATE
  • mathematics
  • Mayans
  • MBodhi Linux
  • mcps
  • meat
  • mebibyte
  • media
  • media companies
  • medicine
  • MEEP
  • Megabus
  • megabyte
  • mepis
  • Metacity
  • metric system
  • MGSE
  • Michael Nielsen
  • Michael Pollan
  • mickey mouse
  • microsoft
  • microsoft office
  • middle
  • Midori
  • misconceptions
  • misrepresentation
  • MIT
  • MLB
  • Mokshagundam
  • money
  • monopoly
  • mouse
  • movie
  • Movie Review
  • Mozilla
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Mozilla Prism
  • mpaa
  • multiboot
  • MultiSystem
  • MWM
  • national health service
  • national security
  • nautilus
  • NCAA
  • ncurses
  • netbook
  • Netrunner
  • neutrino
  • new computer
  • new york
  • new york city
  • new zealand
  • newbie
  • news corp
  • NFL
  • NHS
  • NIST
  • normal distribution
  • novell
  • numbers
  • nutrition science
  • nutritionism
  • NVidia
  • NZCS
  • obama
  • okular
  • One
  • open standards
  • open-source
  • openbox
  • openoffice.org
  • opensolaris
  • openSUSE
  • Opera
  • oracle
  • Oxidized Trinity
  • P. W. Singer
  • panel
  • paramount
  • Pardus
  • parenting
  • parody
  • particle
  • patent
  • pay-to-pirate
  • PC-BSD
  • pclinuxos
  • pcmanfm
  • Pear OS
  • pearson education
  • Peppermint OS
  • Peter Pan
  • philosophy
  • Photograph 51
  • photonic
  • PHP
  • physics
  • pidgin
  • Pierce Brosnan
  • Pinguy OS
  • pink
  • Pink Floyd
  • piracy
  • plasma
  • plasmoid
  • poll
  • Porteus
  • power
  • power law
  • prejudice
  • presentation
  • president
  • president obama
  • presumption of innocence
  • Princeton
  • printing
  • prisoner
  • privacy
  • profit
  • programming
  • progress
  • Project Natal
  • promotion
  • proprietary
  • public domain
  • purpose
  • qed
  • QEMU
  • qt
  • quantum electrodynamics
  • quantum mechanics
  • radio
  • rape
  • Rawhide
  • Razor-Qt
  • red hat
  • Reflection
  • Rekonq
  • religion
  • Remastersys
  • rent
  • repossession
  • republican
  • retroactive copyright
  • review
  • rewards
  • RHEL
  • RIAA
  • Righthaven
  • RMA
  • robotics
  • rolling release
  • rootkit
  • ROSA
  • royalty
  • RPM
  • RSS
  • rule
  • rupert murdoch
  • sabayon
  • safari
  • saints
  • Salix OS
  • Samsung
  • sarah palin
  • Saudi Arabia
  • scanner
  • school
  • school network
  • science
  • Scientific Linux
  • security theater
  • selection
  • semester
  • Semplice
  • senior
  • Shiki
  • shooting
  • Shotwell
  • shut down
  • SI
  • sidux
  • Simon Singh
  • simplymepis
  • Skype
  • skyscraper
  • Slackware
  • slander
  • slashdot
  • social media
  • social policy
  • socialism
  • software patents
  • solar
  • SolusOS
  • SolydXK
  • sony
  • sony-bmg
  • SOPA
  • Source Code
  • SourceForge
  • SPARC
  • special effects
  • spying
  • spyware
  • Squeeze
  • SSH
  • Star Wars
  • State Department
  • statin
  • statistical mechanics
  • Statler
  • Stella
  • steve jobs
  • stewart
  • Stuxnet
  • subscriber
  • subsidy
  • substitute
  • sun
  • Sun Tzu
  • super bowl
  • Super Bowl XLV
  • super user
  • Suresh Kalmadi
  • survey
  • Symbicort
  • synaptic
  • tablet
  • Talledega Nights
  • tax
  • tech company
  • Tech Drive-in
  • techdirt
  • Technorati
  • Ted Williams
  • terrorist
  • thanksgiving
  • The Adjustment Bureau
  • The Amazing Race
  • The Art of War
  • The Code Book
  • The Drunkard's Walk
  • The King's Speech
  • The Social Network
  • the tunnel
  • the undercover economist
  • thermophotovoltaic
  • thunar
  • tim
  • Tim Harford
  • tint2
  • torrent
  • Toy Story 3
  • toyota
  • tracking device
  • trademark
  • train
  • treason
  • Trinity
  • Trisquel
  • trivial
  • troll
  • TSA
  • TuxMachines
  • Twitter
  • TWM
  • UberBang
  • ubuntu
  • ubuntu one
  • UK
  • unetbootin
  • unintended acceleration
  • units
  • Unity
  • Unixoid Review
  • UROP
  • US
  • utopia
  • V. S. Narayana Rao
  • VectorLinux
  • vegan
  • vegetarian
  • Verizon
  • vesa
  • Viewnior
  • ViewPad
  • ViewSonic
  • violation
  • virtual desktop
  • VirtualBox
  • virus
  • Visvesvaraya
  • vlc
  • warfare
  • water
  • WattOS
  • wavelength
  • Wayland
  • web-connected printer
  • webcam
  • WebOS
  • weekly
  • whistle
  • widget
  • wifi
  • wiki
  • Wikileaks
  • William Shakespeare
  • windowing system
  • WindowMaker
  • windows
  • windows 7
  • windows vista
  • windows xp
  • Wired for War
  • word
  • WordPress
  • world cup
  • Wubi
  • x11
  • XBMC
  • xbox360
  • xfce
  • xkcd
  • xp
  • yahoo
  • yoga
  • YouTube
  • YSA
  • Zenwalk
  • Zorin OS

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (63)
    • ►  September (4)
    • ►  August (9)
    • ►  July (3)
    • ►  June (9)
    • ►  May (7)
    • ►  April (10)
    • ►  March (11)
    • ►  February (6)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ►  2012 (85)
    • ►  December (4)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  October (2)
    • ►  September (6)
    • ►  August (8)
    • ►  July (12)
    • ►  June (12)
    • ►  May (7)
    • ►  April (6)
    • ►  March (6)
    • ►  February (9)
    • ►  January (10)
  • ►  2011 (179)
    • ►  December (5)
    • ►  November (8)
    • ►  October (9)
    • ►  September (12)
    • ►  August (15)
    • ►  July (15)
    • ►  June (15)
    • ►  May (16)
    • ►  April (15)
    • ►  March (19)
    • ►  February (21)
    • ►  January (29)
  • ▼  2010 (173)
    • ►  December (24)
    • ►  November (23)
    • ►  October (34)
    • ▼  September (36)
      • The Ideal Linux Distribution, As I See It
      • Sun Tzu and File Sharing
      • Red Hat: The New Big Monopoly?
      • Review: aptosid 2010-02 "Keres" KDE
      • Featured Comments: Week of 2010 September 19
      • FOLLOW-UP: SourceForge, Pages, and Respins
      • Review: ArchBang 2010.09 "apeiro"
      • Presumed Innocent Unless A Digital Pirate
      • 200th Post: Preview: ArchBang 2010.09 "apeiro"
      • Microsoft's Hardware is Good Stuff
      • Whose LXDE Is It Anyway?
      • Featured Comments: Week of 2010 September 12
      • FOLLOW-UP: Review: Mandriva 2010.1 Spring
      • SourceForge, Pages, and Respins
      • Featured Comments: Week of 2010 September 5
      • How I Multiplied Subscribers and Page Views in 2 W...
      • It's Official: Free Online Content Distribution He...
      • Six Divided by Two is Patented
      • Reflection: KDE 4.5
      • First Sale Not Applicable to Licensed Software
      • Righthaven Copyright Suits are like Property Repos...
      • Apple to Third-Party iOS Developers: You Can Retur...
      • Counter-Debunking the 1% Myth
      • Review: Linux Mint "Debian"
      • Classes Begin Tomorrow
      • FOLLOW-UP: How to Oxidize KDE 3.5
      • FOLLOW-UP: Windows 7 on Netbooks?
      • Linux and Breakfast Cereals
      • How to Oxidize KDE 3.5
      • One Outrageously Uninformed Yahoo! Article
      • Review: Kubuntu 10.04 Trinity "Lucid Lynx" (Idea b...
      • Review: Mandriva 2010.1 Spring
      • Movie Review: Hackers
      • Sometimes, Apple Doesn't "Just Work"
      • Review: sidux 2010-01 "Hypnos"
      • Microsoft's Ironic Shutdown Patent
    • ►  August (15)
    • ►  July (18)
    • ►  June (13)
    • ►  May (8)
    • ►  April (2)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile