The commotion surrounding copyright troll Righthaven’s lawsuits just keeps getting better. One of the defendants, news aggregator Buzzfeed.com, has filed a class-action counterclaim against the company on behalf of all sites sued by Righthaven, alleging Righthaven is abusing legal process, does not actually own the copyrights it is claiming, and is suing in bad faith by not sending a takedown notice first or investigating if the use might be a fair use.
The case is essentially piggy-backing on the work done in the Democratic Underground case, in which an EFF legal team succeeded in unsealing Righthaven’s contract with the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The unsealed contract revealed that Righthaven may not have the actual legal standing necessary for the suits it is filing.
It’s not clear how effective this will end up being, but it’s another straw on the camel’s back. No matter how many expensive copyright lawyers Righthaven hires, sooner or later there will be a reckoning.
