Tuesday, March 29, 2011

I think this is good news: Copyright Troll Opens Floodgates to Mass Reposting

Copyright Troll Opens Floodgates to Mass Reposting reports an interesting change in the legal issues on how the news is reported and shared:

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Las Vegas-based lawfirm Righthaven has been suing everyone from bloggers to commenters -- anyone who has posted even a portion of the text or images to which it owns the rights. Righthaven doesn't actually make anything, they just buy the rights to stories and images that have gone viral on the web.

Now, according to the Las Vegas Sun, Righthaven has scored what Ars Technica aptly describes as an "own goal": Not only did a Federal judge reject Righthaven's case against the non-profit Center for Intercultural Organizing, the judge also declared that non-profits may re-print entire articles from news outlets under certain circumstances.
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Since I often post snippets of news articles on my blog, with links back to the original article, I have worried a bit about Righthaven.  It is nice to see the judge reining them in.

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