Source: TechDirt

The key Righthaven case, in which the details of the strategic agreement between Righthaven and Stephens Media were finally released, was Righthaven's lawsuit against the Democratic Underground. DU, with help from lawyers at the EFF and Fenwick and West, countersued Stephens Media, arguing that it, not Righthaven, was really behind the lawsuits. That resulted in the release of the agreement between the two companies, and the court dismissed Righthaven from the proceedings... while keeping Stephens Media in the case. The Democratic Underground filed a motion for summary judgment... and in its response, Stephens Media has almost totally capitulated -- admitting that the Democratic Underground's use was "fair use" (full motion embedded below):

While Stephens Media disagrees with DU's characterizations of certain facts that are not material for purposes of the present Motion, it does not contest the substantive arguments presented by DU on the issues of volitional act and fair use as applied to the material facts of this case.

In other words, Stephens Media -- who according to the strategic agreement, had to give Righthaven the green light to sue -- now admits that the use by DU was fair use.

From there, Stephens focuses on a separate issue: making sure that additional details of its business relationship with various companies stay secret. Apparently, a number of documents have been filed under seal, and Stephens wants to make sure they don't see the light of day. Basically, DU wanted details of syndication relationships that Stephens has with other parties as part of its fair use argument, but Stephens is now giving them that argument, saying they agree it's fair use... just let us keep those other deals secret. But on the major point of the lawsuit, the copyright infringement, Stephens has now flat out said that it agrees the use was fair.

Read more: http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111118/...

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Excerpt from EFF Press release (with quote from me):

Righthaven Case Ends in Victory for Fair Use

Newspaper Publisher Caves at Last, Agrees Excerpts of Articles Do Not Infringe Copyright

San Francisco - In a victory for fair use, the publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Stephens Media, filed papers yesterday conceding that posting a short excerpt of a news article in an online forum is not copyright infringement. The concession will result in entry of a judgment of non-infringement in a long-running copyright troll case that sparked the dismissal of dozens of baseless lawsuits filed by Righthaven LLC.

The case began when the online political forum Democratic Underground -- represented by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Fenwick & West LLP, and attorney Chad Bowers -- was sued by Righthaven for a five-sentence excerpt of a Review-Journal news story that a user posted on the forum with a link back to the newspaper's website. Democratic Underground countersued, asking the court to rule that the excerpt did not infringe copyright and is a fair use of the material, and brought Righthaven-backer Stephens Media into the case.

The Court dismissed Righthaven's infringement case because it did not own the article, but Democratic Underground's counterclaim against Stephens Media continued. After initially attempting to defend the bogus assertion of copyright infringement, Stephens Media has now conceded it was incorrect.

"I knew the lawsuit was wrong from the start, and any self-respecting news publisher should have, too," said Democratic Underground founder David Allen. "I'm glad that they have finally admitted it."

Read more: https://www.eff.org/press/releases/rightha...

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