According to Wired.com, the company RightHaven LLC which goes after blogs and publications for “unauthorized” use of copyrighted material has now filed suit against the DrudgeReport.com and seeks as part of the suit, the domain name.
If you want to read more about RightHaven checkout Elliotsblog.com article on the company.
Righthaven file suit on Wednesday on behalf of MediaNews, and “demands a Nevada federal judge to “direct Network Solutions, and any successor domain name registrar for the Drudge Report domain, to lock the Drudge Report domain and transfer control of the Drudge Report domain to Righthaven.” (.pdf) The suit also demands the judge order the same for drudgereportarchives.com, the archival site of drudgereport.com.”
In a 18 page complaint which also has 21 pages of exhibits, RightHaven demand the domains be turned over along with statutory damages and attorney fees.
It is still unclear under what authority a court can award a domain name to a complainant based on copyright infringement, but RightHaven has filed many such like suits but this is by far the biggest site is has gone after to the best of our knowledge.
It will be interesting to see how this one is sorted out.
The case for using registrars outside of the US seems ever more compelling. It seems like the grabbing of domains is becoming the default action for anyone with a gripe; it’s simple and cheap, not messy or confrontational like grabbing physical items.
you might want to check out the latest COICA draft.
“copyright infringment” is hardly an easy test when it comes to the internet. but this law gives criminal law enforcement personnel, who may know little about copyright law**, the power to seize domains based on allegations of “copyright infringment”.
**it appears these personnel would be following “guidance” from a “coordinator”.
it doesn’t sound like these folks are expected to know much about ip law. i can imagine a “manual” on how to seize domain names. “just follow these steps and you’re covered.”
with this criminal law type enforcement system, i would not expect much reasoned analysis on a legal basis for copyright infringment or respect of the inherent limits of IPR.
i would expect bare minimums of evidence to be presented and injunctions to be readily obtained. and i would expect DNS providers, ISP’s and any other parties who receive notices to comply without question. this is like the power of DMCA takedown notices but instead they can take down the entire site, and the notices are not issued by private parties but by law enforcement personnel.
the law even allows for extraterritorial jurisdiction. if the sites affect us intel prop interests, then their providers can be served with takedown notices.
were it to be passed, would this poorly drafted law be abused? just look at what some companies have done with the dmca and you have your answer.
RightHaven.com — what a comical name.
These guys are seemingly just clowns that try to take digital assets away from people. It smells of organized crime to me.
These guys need to be taken to court themselves.
probably they only want the value of the domain name asset and not its TM
Scare tactics. It ain’t gonna work. RightHaven asks for the domain for every Copyright infringement lawsuit they file.
UPDATE
RightHaven is up to 184 suits filed
It´s legal to sue no matter, how the outcome turns out. The only problem is when one day some obscure court will rule in favour of one of these mad hatters plaintiffs, and the case can then be used as reference for other cases.
Christopher Hofman
Well as someone who has his material lifted word for word including the “MHB” as the author of the post by several “sources” everyday including domainsplayers:
http://domainsplayers.com/b/2011/01/14/righthaven-is-now-coming-after-comment-posters-not-just-websites/
I can’t say I’m entirely surprised by mainstream publications taking action to protect their property although going as far down as to commentators seems extreme