Defunct Copyright Troll Seeks Resurrection

[Lt-Col A. Tack]

By David Kravets
July 3, 2012, 2:03 pm

Copyright troll Righthaven, which famously went defunct last year after an epic failure in trying to make money for newspapers by suing sites that reposted even parts of news stories, is seeking a second life.


The copyright dispute is one of great importance in today’s digital world: whether reposting of an entire article, without permission, can amount to fair use of that work.


More: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...n-second-life/

[Lufthutze]

By David Kravets
July 3, 2012, 2:03 pm

Copyright troll Righthaven, which famously went defunct last year after an epic failure in trying to make money for newspapers by suing sites that reposted even parts of news stories, is seeking a second life.


The copyright dispute is one of great importance in today’s digital world: whether reposting of an entire article, without permission, can amount to fair use of that work.


More: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...n-second-life/

Judging by the thread title I had expected this to be about MPAA or RIAA ...

[Lt-Col A. Tack]

Judging by the thread title I had expected this to be about MPAA or RIAA ...

new vocabulary term, "non-practicing entities"

The Direct Costs from NPE Disputes

James E. Bessen
Boston University - School of Law; Research on Innovation

Michael J. Meurer
Boston University - School of Law

June 28, 2012

Boston Univ. School of Law, Law and Economics Research Paper No. 12-34

Abstract:
In the past, “non-practicing entities” (NPEs), popularly known as “patent trolls,” have helped small inventors profit from their inventions. Is this true today or, given the unprecedented levels of NPE litigation, do NPEs reduce innovation incentives? Using a survey of defendants and a database of litigation, this paper estimates the direct costs to defendants arising from NPE patent assertions. We estimate that firms accrued $29 billion of direct costs in 2011. Moreover, although large firms accrued over half of direct costs, most of the defendants were small or medium-sized firms, indicating that NPEs are not just a problem for large firms

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c...act_id=2091210