Righthaven, the Las Vegas copyright troll formed this spring, has moved beyond lawsuits over newspaper articles and begun targeting websites for the unauthorized reposting of images. First up, more than a dozen infringement lawsuits concerning the so-called Vdara "death ray."
The Vdara "death ray" describes the south-facing tower at the Vdara Hotel along the Las Vegas Strip. Sunlight bounces from the tower and dramatically heats up the pool area during certain times of the day and year.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal posted a graphic to accompany a September story about the death ray, which quoted a tourist whose hair allegedly was singed by the focused sun. The reposting of the graphic, first reported by the Las Vegas Sun, is now the subject of at least 14 infringement suits brought by Righthaven on behalf of the Review-Journal.
Suing over images appears to be a new tack in Righthaven's legal strategy. Righthaven's business model is to acquire the copyright to content from newspaper companies, such as Stephens Media, whose flagship is the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and Media News Group, whose major daily is the San Jose Mercury News. The company then sues blogs and other websites that have posted or excerpted those articles. Until this month, it had focused exclusively on the article texts.
The image-based lawsuits may be part of Righthaven's efforts to curtail a "fair use" defense to its claims. Last month the company indicated it would no longer sue over brief excerpts of articles after a Nevada judge agreed with a real estate firm's argument that posting a mere eight of 30 sentences from a Review-Journal story qualified as fair use.
Fair use is a defense to copyright infringement, which otherwise carries fines of up to $150,000 per violation. The courts must consider the "effect and use upon the potential market" of the infringed work, the "purpose" of the infringing activity and, among other factors, the "amount" of the infringing work used. There is no bright-line rule as to what constitutes a fair use, and it can apply regardless of whether the infringed material is text or images.
Image: Vdara "death ray" graphic as it appears in a Righthaven court filing.
See Also:
- Righthaven Says It Will Stop Suing Over News Excerpts
- Newspaper Chain's New Business Plan: Copyright Suits
- EFF Defends Former Prosecutor From Righthaven Copyright Suit
- Righthaven Expands Troll Operation With Newspaper Giant
- EFF Sues Newspaper Chain's Copyright Troll
- The $105 Fix That Could Protect You From Copyright-Troll Lawsuits
