March 11, 2011 11:38 PM UTC

Copyright Concerns, Meet Public Relations Nightmare

• 7 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Righthaven is now being counter-sued by a different defendant, which Righthaven says is…wait for it…”litigation overkill.”

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As Westword reports, the blog-suing organization Righthaven (which the Denver Post is also working with) is looking at a PR disaster:

MediaNews Group’s get-tough policy toward copyright protection has been led by Righthaven LLC, a Nevada firm whose Denver Post-related lawsuits have targeted the likes of Internet star Matt Drudge. Far less powerful is Brian D. Hill, a twenty-year-old hobby blogger on disability, who says he received no warning about unauthorized use of a Post photo and can’t afford the $6,000 Righthaven told him he must pay to squash a suit against him…

…Hill immediately removed the photo, “and then me and my mom contacted Righthaven to try to reason with them. I told them I’m renting a house, so I don’t own any property, and I’m on disability, so I really don’t have any money for them to take.”

According to Hill, a Righthaven representative responded by telling me “that if I paid them $6,000 in an out-of-court settlement, it wouldn’t go to trial.” [Pols emphasis]

Unfortunately for Hill, he has neither the $6,000 nor enough money to travel to Colorado for a hearing. He received a summons last week that gives him 21 days to respond — “so me and my mom sent a letter to the judge to try to get him to dismiss the case.” And if he doesn’t? “Then the only way we can afford to go to Colorado is to countersue Righthaven and have them pay the filing fee.”

MediaNews Group (which includes the Denver Post) says suits like this (and other legal threats) are all about “protecting their copyright.” But at some point they have to start weighing this “protection” against the tremendous damage they are doing to their reputation and community goodwill. Righthaven and MediaNews Group can argue all day about copyrights and legal protections, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re still suing a poor autistic kid who probably didn’t know he was doing anything wrong in the first place (and who immediately complied with their requests to remove the offending content anyway).

By the time MediaNews Group finishes their “copyright protection” crusade, there might not be a whole lot of people left who are still willing to subscribe to their newspapers. At least then they won’t have to worry about anyone “stealing” their content.