986forum.com Sued by Righthaven - The Story
 

986forum.com and myself was sued by Righthaven for copyright infringement. The suit was for $150,000 and surrender of the website domain.

Background:
In October, a forum member, cut and pasted a story from the Las Vegas Review Journal (****************) regarding Harry Reid. While we try to be vigilant about this, neither Brucelee or I caught it; after all in this day and age aren't we protected by Fair Use standards and wouldn't an offended party just ask us to take down the article....NO!

**************** sanctioned a company Righthaven - to assume the copyrights to their articles. Righthaven pays for the copyrights and then seeks out websites, forums, blogs and their owners who may have used those stories without permission and sues them. To date over 150 companies have been sued by Righthaven, some more notable like Matt Drudge and NORML, but most others are small like us.

After much research I discovered Righthaven is exploiting a loophole in the Federal law re: DMCA; specifically regarding asking nicely to take down an offending article. If you are not a registered DMCA agent (register your website with the government) then they can sue you. Needless to say - better late than never - I am now the registered agent for the forum.

In November - I received notice of the lawsuit. I retained legal services and was willing to fight but a change in circumstances forced me to seek settlement. The suit is now wrapping up but as a result it has wiped out the forum bank account and hurt me on a personal financial level.

Note: To those that have wondered - this is why links are turned off - to prevent further mishaps despite the protections that are in place.

Let's grow this website some more!
Sincerely,
RKwei

Thanks for the update Richard. I owe you some money! :)

Sorry to hear you were targeted by these blood suckers. The Westboro Baptist Church (their ones that protest soldiers funerals) basically does the same thing. They hope that someone will assault them during their protests and then sue the town for not protecting them. In all, it's a pretty sleazy way to make a living. :barf:

Creeps lurk everywhere... :ah:

Just say the word ... and I'll put a contract out on them ! :mad:

rkwei,

Can you set up an easy way for me (and other forum members hopefully) to make a contribution? I'm more than willing to do so. As long as measures have been taken to prevent this from happening again, there is no reason for you to suffer personal losses. We all love this site and want it to stay around and healthy.

Thanks,

ddb

Unreal!
One of the things that need fixin' in this country!

I'm pretty sure I heard of this happening to another site as well.

+1 (or actually +$50) on that
set up a PayPal account: If you build it the $ will come ...

I will contribute.

I'm more then happy to contribute as well!
This forum (and it's members) is endless well of Boxster knowledge and it has the nicest people you would see on a forum!

Thanks
Sasha

Sorry about your troubles, I understand your aggravation. My business was the target of a shakedown lawsuit along with hundreds of others in Calif. by a few lawsuit mills exploiting a similar loophole in California law. The lawsuit mills were eventually closed down and the loophole was eliminated but not before I shelled out $20K in defense costs. :mad:

A defense fund from forum members is a good idea, a long term court challenge and solution to the problem is even better. More on Righthaven:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/sep/05/defendant-accuses-righthaven-misusing-legal-system/

Here is some info on how it was resolved in Calif. if you find it useful:
http://www.calchamber.com/headlines/publicaffairspolitics/pages/shakedownlawsuitvictimsspeakoutinsupportofproposit ion64.aspx

put up a donation link. a lot of us find this place useful & would be happy to support our online 'home'.

^^^^^^

Same here, although this is a sad thing to do and just feeds the "bad" guys......

Me 2
 

Give us a chance to say thanks. Set up a Paypal account and we'll be there.

Lord knows I've started a few topics in the lounge, count me in as a contributor....

I appreciate the offers of support.

The forum Paypal address is: 986forum1@comcast.net

Thanks,
RKwei

Sent my contribution!

I'd be interested how much you'll receive over time.

Later,
Andy

I Sent Mine
 

I sent my contribution -- and paid the Paypal fee. If everyone sends a small contribution there should be enough cash to pay the bills and maybe even up the server space!!
Thanks for everything, guys. :cheers:

payment sent
 

payment sent

"Chu-ching" Keep up the good work guys. I love this site because of the passion for the 986 and your political views. :cheers:

The collective knowledge of members has saved me hundreds if not thousands of dollars over the years. Giving back some of that money was an easy decision. Let's keep the forum going and growing.

Just sent my payment off , happy to help

This site is worth paying for! I just sent my contribution.

Sent my contribution. The least I can do for the amount of time I spend on these forums.

Just sent my contribution.

Sent my contribution, this forum has been a large part of my life since Nov and I greatly appreciate the participation of everyone!!

Sorry to hear this happened. Hope I don't upset anyone, this is a reason I stay out of lounge (most of the time, I did have to educate Rich on weather once LOL), not that I'm not very politically educated, but I've learned I can still share fun car stuff even with a majority of folks that I don't see eye to eye with politically...either way providing a link to another site or pasting content SHOULD NEVER be a reason to be sued...what a joke. If someone doesn't want something to be copy/paste then don't put content on the internet...what a load of sh-t.

Keep us posted, I can try to give more.

I hope you guys don't mind if I bump this thread up :)

This is what it is about! Let's keep going!

And I could not agree more, all of us saved so much money and got so many good ideas, time to show some solidarity!!!!!!

Everyone - Thanks so much for your contributions. It is much appreciated.

RKwei

Bump
 

Come on guys. (And gals)

happy to contribute.

peer pressure!

Richard-

So to hear about these f*cking low life bottom feeders having nothing better to do than come after you. Pathetic scum bags. :mad:

Forbes had an article on them not long ago and as soon as I saw it, I figured something of the sort happened here - just didn't think it was those exact low life losers. Once everything is settled, make sure you add yourself / the forum to all the sites out there tracking everyone being shaken down by them.

You guys are amazing. I love this site for many reasons but this thread has turned out to be my all time fav.

Richard K. is pretty much the best man I have ever met. The fact that you would help him (and me) out is very special indeed.

BL (Rich Belloff)

a small contribution is nothing compared to the kind knowledgeable support from all the members.

Late night bump!

Keep it going!

Wow, what a crazy series of events. Sorry to hear about all this Richard. This Righthaven group seems like a sleazy company. Just the conspiracy theorist inside thinking aloud here but who is to say that the people cutting and pasting these articles on various forums aren't maybe somehow connected to Righthaven? Would be simply and easy enough I would think especially with the anonymity of the internet. They could do it from any public computer if need be and then you are held liable paying a settlement with the original poster just being a screen name with some bogus email address that can't be traced back. Something to think about. I've heard of crazier scams.

Contribution sent - keep up the good work!

To all,
Thanks again for the contributions. It is much appreciated.

As to Righthaven, I certainly don't like their business model but it appears to work. The settlement agreement precludes me from talking about the settlement process, amounts, etc., but I settled 1) to avoid really involved costs, 2) to also avoid secondary liability to Brucelee and 3) to avoid possible liability to the poster who is /has been a regular poster here.

No conspiracy theory necessary- most folks think that in this day and age they are protected when in fact they are not. Righthaven does appear to honor instances where there is a registered DMCA agent and does not sue those website owners - hence the importance of becoming a registered agent.

Was it a defensible case? Yes - a very good one, probably all the way up to the 9th Circuit Court - because this would have been the first case involving a forum and the poster being a forum member versus the poster being the website/blog owner. Start adding up the costs though...

As to public record - there are several websites for aggrieved "Righthaven victims". One of them lists the Righthaven suits by month - you can see 986forum.com and myself listed under October/November 2010. There are also public court documents out there with 986forum in them.

RKwei

I agree with the sentiments you (and others) have voiced here...it's indisputably a crummy way to turn a buck.

Although I haven't always agreed with some of the causes they've pursued through the judicial system, I wonder if this might have been a good case to chat with someone in the ACLU about. It's just the kind of cause they might have jumped on. Water under the bridge, I suppose, in light of the settlement, but, as with all frivolous, pernicious lawsuits such as this, hopefully someone will find a way to shut them down. These days, with so many wanting to get something for nothing, I guess it's a constant battle anymore...

I'll contribute something when I can...times are a bit lean for me at the moment.

Sounds like the blog/forum version of a patent troll.