3 Count: Troll Tossing

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1: Righthaven Reeling: Secret Doc Could Doom a Copyright Troll

First off today, Righthaven, the controversial company that has been suing site owners over use of content from both the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post, may have hit a legal snag. According to an agreement recently unsealed, the company was only granted the “right to sue” over infringements and not any exclusive rights in the work, meaning the company likely does not have standing to file suits. This could also mean that the company’s parent, Stephens Media, which owns the Review-Journal, might be brought into the suit as a “party of interest”. This could have dire consequences for the hundreds of Righthaven lawsuits still pending.

2: Senior Judge Slams File-Sharing Law Firm, Orders Costs Payout

Next up today, in the UK a senior judge in the Patents County Court has authorized plaintiffs to go after ACS:Law, the law firm that famously targeted file sharers before melting down, for wasted costs due to them being forced to defend cases that the organization intended to drop. At issue are 27 defendants of ACS:Law lawsuits, whom the firm tried to drop not wishing to go to court but the judge refused to allow them to exit. According to the judge, ACS:Law also violated solicitor rules within the country, opening them up to these damages. ACS:Law, as a firm, closed down in January of this year.

3: Legal This Time? Startup Offers Local TV on the ‘Net, With a Twist

Finally today, following legal defeats of both iviTV and FilmOn, a new company is trying its hand at streaming television over the Web. Bamboom works by keeping a separate physical antennae for each user and the user controls the antennae, including the DVR and other functions. Bamboom is hoping that this will bring it more in line with the recent Cablevision ruling, which found that remote DVRs were legal so long as they didn’t do anything that a local DVR would. Bamboom takes this idea and applies it to the antennae itself, thus why every user has their own hardware, just not stored at their home. It remains to be seen how television and movie companies will respond to this move.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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