This is a repost to a comment I had in another blog. For completeness with the topic, I give myself permission to repost it.

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Copyright infringement is a very serious offense when it is flat-out plagiarism, like I have seen in many blogs where members just copy-and-paste poems or articles and actually claim to be the original authors. I do not tolerate such activity. Admins have the right to immediately DELETE any such blogs and alert the member on the reason for deletion. Repeated offenses deserve a perma-ban. Remember part of the footer text on the bottom of everyone main page on the website: "Members are responsible for their own content."

Now, here is where the concern comes that Astra Moon is addressing: I'm sure nearly everyone is familiar with the RIAA and the MPAA lawsuits against file sharers, including unsuspecting grandmothers and 7 year old girls. Sure, they have the right to do that since it is their content, and millions of dollars may have been spent developing it. Of course there is a level of sleaziness to how they are doing it.

Here is where copyright attorneys pass the level of sleaziness and enter down-right evil territory...

Enter Steve Gibson, CEO of RightHaven. Gibson is an attorney with a business plan that completely revolves around copyright trolling. RightHaven and Stephens Media, which owns more than 70 newspapers across the USA, have formed a mutually-profitable alliance.

In this alliance, RightHaven employees scour the Internet for any content that partially or fully comes from the Las Vegas Review-Journal and other Stephens Media publications. It doesn't matter if the content is just two paragraphs of a 4 page article, and it doesn't matter if a link is provided that cites the source. They claim this is copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

RightHaven will buy a retroactive license to the article and immediately file a lawsuit against the website where it was posted, either by the owner or by members. They give no cease-and-desist letter nor warning of infringement first.

Although most lawsuits brought to the end result in the judge throwing them out, the cost of even going that far is too much for small websites to handle, so they settle out of court for amounts that still lead to websites being shut down or the owners filing for bankruptcy.

If you have permission from the copyright holder to repost content, by all means do so. But please be aware of the sleaziness of attorneys and publications desperate for money, who wish to twist laws for personal gain.

You can find more information here:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/07/copyright-trolling-for-dollars/

There is also a great deal of information by just searching for "RightHaven" on any search engine.