website is ultimately found liable for breaching copyright law. The Electronic Frontier Foundation maintains the tactic is a method to coerce settlements from rank-and-file websites that cannot afford to defend themselves from the newspaper-lawsuit factory that is Righthaven.

To be sure, Las Vegas-based Righthaven’s latest target is no unknown site like most of Righthaven’s targets. It’s the Drudge Report, which is accused of carrying a Denver Post photo of a TSA agent searching an air traveler last month.

Righthaven’s lawsuit comes nearly a month after the Denver Post published a “notice to readers” that it was a breach of copyright law to re-publish its photographs without permission.

Founded this spring, Righthaven sues on behalf of Stephens Media and, as of days ago, MediaNews Group. Righthaven has demanded a federal judge in each of its 180-plus cases to order its targets to hand over their domains. About 70 of its cases have settled out of court, and their terms are confidential.

One of Righthaven’s latest cases, lodged Wednesday on behalf of MediaNews, 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.

Matt Drudge, who is personally named in the lawsuit, did not immediately respond for comment. Steve Gibson, Righthaven’s chief executive, said in a Tuesday telephone interview that Righthaven would soon begin lodging lawsuits on behalf of other, yet-to-named media outlets.

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
• The $105 Fix That Could Protect You From Copyright-Troll Lawsuits
• EFF Sues Newspaper Chain’s Copyright Troll
• Second Newspaper Chain Joins Copyright Trolling Operation

Authors: David Kravets

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