Nobody really likes a copyright troll. Especially a troll like Righthaven. The company sues people who have supposedly violated newspaper copyrights. However, the company has sued an Ars Technica writer for infringement on Righthaven's court filings and angered judges who found that the company does not even have a leg to stand on. Now Righthaven is having to pay out cash.
Yesterday, a federal judge ordered Righthaven to pay over $3,800 in legal fees after botching a case involving an individual named Michael Leon. The case started in September 2010, but the right paperwork was not served. Multiple defendants started responding to the court, so the judge set a hearing, according to Ars Technica.
The April 20 hearing concluded with a decision that case would be dismissed. The window for sending the paperwork had also lapsed. In addition, Righthaven was also on the hook for legal fees. Those fees were just approved yesterday.
Righthaven now owes $3,815 to the Randazza Legal Group, which fights similar cases and even mass Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lawsuits. Righthaven said that most of the attorney time billed for was spent negotiating fees, but the judge approved it anyway. More is on the way. Randazza also won a "fair use" finding in another Righthaven case. They are now asking for $34,000. It looks like copyright trolls need to be careful.
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