It just goes from bad to worse for beleaguered copyright firm Righthaven, as a federal judge this week stripped Righthaven of ownership of its own copyright registration, some 287 of them, and even it's own trademark. The copyrights will be handed to a court appointed receiver, to sell off in order to pay Righthaven's creditors.
One of its credits is Wayne Hoehn, whose lawyers have been fighting Righthaven over legal costs that a judge had awarded Hoehn. Righthaven originally sued Hoehn for posting a section of a Las Vegas Review-Journal article, but ultimately lost the case and was ordered to pay cost.
Righthaven has previously declared that it is close to bankruptcy, despite being bankrolled Stephens Media, owners of the Review-Journal. It's own domain name, Righthaven.com, has already been auctioned off, with proceeds going to Hoehn and other creditors. The "new"Righthaven.com now points to an ISP whose goal is to stand up to unwarranted take-down requests and legal threats, the type that Righthaven used to send before the law stepped in.
But with this latest setback, and owning no copyrights (and therefore, not being able to sue over them, or even appeal in current cases involving these copyrights), this looks to be the end for Righthaven. Representatives of the firm didn't even show up for the hearing in which Judge Philip Pro ordered the transfer of copyrights.
Righthaven defendants are now eyeing Stephens Media and other investors of the firm.
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