Righthaven - Another MediaCAT?

We blogged fairly extensively on the 'MediaCAT' litigation - the numerous cases brought by ACS:Law on behalf of MediaCAT against individual accused of illegally accessing copyright material - here porn films - by illegal file sharing. The case ended up before Judge Colin Birss QC - and bankruptcy for MediaCAT. I was reminded of the story when I read recent reports about the exploits of Righthaven LLC, another vehicle for content owners to pursue alleged infringers, which is having a torrid time in the USA.

Righthaven is a copyright "holding" company that has filed hundreds of copyright infringement lawsuits in the USA. Since March 2010, the company, fronted by attorney Steven A Gibson, has filed 275 lawsuits claiming website operators, bloggers and message board posters had infringed on copyrights by posting material online from the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post; the lawsuits generally allege copyright infringement against sites that have posted all or portions of newspaper articles and photographs Righthaven claimed it owned through assignments from copyright owners. Nevada based Righthaven describes itself as 'The nation's pre-eminent copyright enforcer' (http://righthaven.com/). But District Courts in both Nevada and Colorado have dismissed Righthaven's complaints on the basis that it lacked standing to sue since it did not, in fact, own the copyrights it claimed it did. Now a court in Nevada has dealt Righthaven its biggest financial blow to date. Not only did the court determine that Righthaven lacked standing to sue, Judge Roger I. Hunt it awarded a Righthaven defendant Thomas DiBiase nearly $120,000 in legal fees as a result of the expenses Mr. DiBiase incurred defending himself against Righthaven's claims. This is the third such award for a Righthaven defendant and the largest award to date. Previously in August, another Nevada judge in Las Vegas awarded another successful defendant approximately $34,000 in legal fees after that defendant successfully moved to dismiss Righthaven's claims for lack of standing. US commentators say that it remains unclear how Righthaven will proceed particularly given Righthaven's alleged difficulty in posting a bond for the previous $34,000 award pending appeal.

Judge Hunt has also fined Righthaven US$5,000 for misleading the federal court about its lawsuits.

In the UK the MediaCat case ended with Judge Birss QC deliverying these words in the Patents County Court "On 26th January I received a letter from ACS:Law. It included copies of documents relating to the firm’s retainer with MediaCAT on the basis that I had asked to see them. In fact I had not asked to see them, the defendants had and I had not ordered them to be produced, ACS:Law had volunteered. In any event the letter also states that MediaCAT has ceased trading as it has become insolvent and that ACS:Law is no longer instructed save to perfect consent orders already notified to the court. The letter concludes with a statement that the claimant has asked Mr Crossley to notify the court that it has ceased all activities and will not at any time in the future be sending letters or pursuing anyone in relation to the alleged infringements of copyright. Also ACS:Law will close permanently on 31st January 2011 and there will be no successor practice".

I don't know about Righthaven's financial position or their resources. They may well be financially secure but Wikipedia seem to disagree, and suggests that on October 29th 2011 a Nevada federal court judge ordered the seizure of the company's bank accounts and property to provide for the payment of the $34,000 legal fee from the August 2011 ruling; by November 1st the Court authorised the US Marshals Service to seize cash and/or assets reflecting the due debt, now standing at $63,720. Wired seem to fear the worst, saying that Righthaven is "on the brink of shuttering". The links below might help you make your own mind up, as might Righthaven's website and Steven Gibson's own words in a 'Face to Face' interview on YouTube here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOsL99mAXS8

Some critical comments at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Righthaven - and a fascinating read here http://righthavenlawsuits.com/ and more at http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/righthaven-teetering/

Image: Marco Bellucci

ACS:Law seeks to end pursuit of alleged file sharers

The BBC and Which? both report that Andrew Crossley, the lawyer behind controversial law firm ACS:Law, has withdrawn from pursuing 26 alleged illegal filesharers, blaming “criminal attacks” and bomb threats as reasons. In a statement read out in court by Tim Ludbrook, barrister for MediaCAT, Crossley’s client, Mr Crossley says "I have ceased my work...I have been subject to criminal attack. My e-mails have been hacked. I have had death threats and bomb threats," adding "It has caused immense hassle to me and my family". This Blog previously reported (28/09/10) that in September, ACS: Law was the victim of a cyber attack which exposed thousands of its e-mails which provided personal details of the people ACS:Law were pursuing and the pornographic films they were accused of downloading for free. That data breach is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Information Commissioner. Which? had complained to the Solicitor's Regulation Authority over ACS: Law's 'bullying' and 'excessive' behaviour in 2009.

Colin Birss QC, Judge of the Patents County Court, seems rather unimpressed with ACS:Law and Mr Crossley, with the BBC reporting that Judge Birss described the twists and turns as "mind-boggling" and saying “I am getting the impression with every twist and turn since I started looking at these cases that there is a desire to avoid any judicial scrutiny”. But it was the detail that came out in court that was fascinating – and the court heard that when any revenues are generated from ACS:Law’s actions, the law firm received a 65% share with copyright owners getting 35%. The monies are primarily from members of the public who have settled after receiving letters threatening a court action unless a payment of £500 is made.

The BBC reports that in his statement Mr Crossley said of the 26 potential actions "It has always been my intention to litigate and, but for the fact that I have ceased this work, my intention was to litigate forcefully in these 26 cases”. The court was not going to automatically agree to that either and Judge Birss said granting permission to discontinue the cases was not a simple matter, due largely to the fact that the actual copyright holders were not in court. This meant that, in theory, these copyright holders could continue to pursue cases against the 26 defendants. The case seems to have been made even more complicated by the fact that a new firm, GCB Ltd, had begun sending similar letters, including one letter to one of the defendants who had been told just the day before that no further action would be taken, although Mr Crossley said in his statement that there were "no new letters pending" and that GCB Ltd had also halted its work. He then explained that he had no connection with GCB Ltd beyond the fact that the founders of the firm had previously been employed at ACS: Law.

http://www.bbc7.co.uk/news/technology-12253746

http://www.which.co.uk/news/2011/01/acs-law-stops-pursuing-file-sharers-243011/

Sky porn leak puts ACS in the shot

Further to my blog on the Ministry of Sound’s efforts to combat online piracy, The Daily Mail reports that ‘thousands’ of Sky Broadband customers have had their personal details leaked online by hackers, apparently linked to The Pirate Bay, who then published the customer details, alongside a list of pornographic films they have downloaded and shared. The information , which included the full names and addresses of over 5,300 internet users, had been collected by law firm ACS:Law who had compiled a list of people it believed were illegally sharing adult films using anti-piracy software and third party investigators. Hackers from 4Chan attacked the firm’s website in retaliation to its anti-piracy efforts and around 1,000 confidential ACS:Law emails, including personal correspondence between Andrew Crossley - who runs the company - and his colleagues were leaked onto the popular file-sharing website The Pirate Bay. It seems that the list of Sky Broadband customers was an attachment on one of the emails.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1315790/Sky-internet-porn-details-leaked-Users-personal-information-appears-online.html?ito=feeds-newsxml