SciFi Fans need to beware of new online copyright cop

If you have been an online science fiction fan for more than a year the chances are pretty good you have either seen a news story reposted to an SF fan site or you may have reposted a story yourself. Until now science fiction fans have believed there are so many infringers in the SF fandom community that they are relatively safe from being sued. That is exactly the kind of attitude a new copyright cop is counting on. Earlier this year a company named Righthaven LLC was formed for the sole purpose of buying the copyrights to newspaper articles that have been copied without authorization on Websites and filing lawsuits to collect damages (in the neighborhood of $75,000 per infringement) against those Websites.

Whereas most SF fans would say, "There are so many of us they cannot find us all", that is just the point behind Righthaven's business model: there are so many infringers they'll stay in business for years by settling these lawsuits out of court for anywhere from $1500 to $3500.

Most people cannot afford to hire an attorney to defend them -- and in many cases you have no defense against copyright infringement anyway. Allowing these suits to go to court could result in judgements that ruin your credit for years to come. Buying houses, boats, cars, land, or obtaining credit cards will become impossible or extremely difficult for anyone with a $75,000 judgement on their credit record.

It doesn't matter what you believe -- if you are caught republishing protected news stories on your site, you're asking for trouble. You cannot win, you WILL lose, and trying to make a point that won't change how the world works will cost you at the very least a couple thousand dollars.

There are many better things you can do with your life, your money, your credit, and your Websites.

Righthaven's business model works much like those of some notorious "collection" agencies that buy up "charged off" debts from banks. Paying as little as 1% of the debt to the banks, these companies pursue consumers for years, hounding them into settling. Any payment received goes entirely to the debt collection agency.

Righthaven is only interested in you if you have published a copyrighted news story without authorization on your Website. That puts you only a Web search away from being sued.

It's true that forum operators may be protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act but Righthaven has apparently failed to comply with that law -- they just filed a lawsuit against one forum operator rather than issue a DMCA takedown notice. While it may be possible for the forum operator to win a countersuit (and recover legal fees as damages), most science fiction fans are not in the position to wage that kind of fight.

It's time for the SF fan community to clean up its own act. We are running out of excuses and if any of you get sued after reading this warning, you will be entitled to no sympathy.

I've posted some more about this in an SF-Fandom discussion titled Before You Post That News Story On Your Site.

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