Class-action lawsuit targets Righthaven's "extortion litigation"

By Nate Anderson |

Righthaven has gone after more than 250 publishers for allegedly violating newspaper copyrights, and it has extracted settlements from many of them. But one defendant is fighting back in Colorado, launching a class-action counterclaim against Righthaven.

"Class Plaintiffs are victims of extortion litigation by Righthaven,” says the counterclaim, “which has made such extortion litigation a part of its, if not its entire, business model.”

The defendant in question here is BuzzFeed, a New York-based online publisher who is accused of violating a Denver Post copyright in a photograph of a Denver airport TSA security patdown. (Righthaven sued an Ars writer over our use of the same photograph in a story about another of these lawsuits, only to dismiss the case days later.) BuzzFeed is one of more than 50 publishers and individuals being sued in Colorado federal court by Righthaven, which claims to have licensed the photograph in question from the Post.

BuzzFeed insists that its display of the photograph is a fair use, though some of its arguments sound a bit odd. (“BuzzFeed, Inc. does not received any financial benefit above and beyond Web advertising.” Isn't this the definition of a financial benefit?) But it quickly moves from a defense of its own conduct to an attack on the conduct of Righthaven, and it asks the judge to put every Colorado defendant into a class which can pursue Righthaven for extortion-style behavior.

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http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/05/class-action-lawsuit-targets-righthavens-extortion-litigation.ars