Bloggers Beware! Local Blogger Facing Copyright Infringement Lawsuit from Righthaven.

The new operation set up by the publisher of the Las Vegas Journal Review to shakedown any site that reposts its stories. There were some oddities in the way RightHaven was acting, starting with the fact that it gives no warning to sites and doesn't send a DMCA takedown.

It goes straight to suing... and then quickly demands a settlement fee.

Of course, most of the sites its suing aren't competitors to the LVJR at all. In fact, they're usually organizations or people written about by the newspaper, who want to post the publicity -- with links back to the original -- on their own sites.

 In many cases, it would seem that they have pretty strong fair use claims, but fighting a copyright infringement lawsuit in federal court is expensive, which is exactly what RightHaven is counting on.

LOCAL BLOGGER SUED BY THESE ASSHOLES