Source:
PaidContent.orgAngered at Righthaven’s behavior, a Las Vegas federal judge unsealed the company’s heretofore confidential agreement with the Las Vegas Review-Journal late on Friday. The contract reveals that the controversial copyright-enforcement company and LV R-J parent company Stephens Media are splitting their net earnings from suing hundreds of bloggers on a 50-50 basis. It also shows that the LV R-J is still largely in control of Righthaven’s litigation strategy — a fact that could end up being ruinous for Righthaven’s campaign of copyright lawsuits.
... If the lawyers representing DU are successful in this argument, it would undermine every lawsuit Righthaven has filed based on LV R-J copyrights.
... DU lawyers want to go after attorneys’ fees — and there is now a scenario in which it’s not just Righthaven but its newspaper clients that will have to pay. Since Stephens Media never truly lost control of its copyrights, it should be brought into the lawsuit as a party, DU lawyers argue. Attorneys’ fees in a case like Democratic Underground — which is employing top IP lawyers from both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Fenwick & West, one of Silicon Valley’s go-to law firms — could easily run into the low six figures. (These lawyers have taken the DU case on a pro bono basis, but that doesn’t mean they can’t collect attorneys fees at market rates.)
So what began as a business deal in which there was no downside for Stephens Media now looks like a situation where the company could be on the hook for a serious chunk of change. It’s worth noting that the contract actually has a specific clause (see Section 11) in which Righthaven indemnifies Stephens Media in the event that attorneys’ fees need to be paid to an opponent. But could Righthaven really fulfill that obligation? What assets does Righthaven really haven? Likely not much; it’s a company set up just to file lawsuits.
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http://paidcontent.org/article/419-righthavens-secret-contract-is-revealedwill-its-strategy-collapse/