Copyright trolls are nothing new, and Righthaven is just the latest group of lawyers to try to turn copyright litigation into a business model. What these lawyers have in common is that they seek to take advantage of copyright's draconian damages in order to bully Internet users into forking over money. To anyone who has watched the file-sharing lawsuits of the last few years or the current BitTorrent cases brought by a DC law firm, the Righthaven saga is developing into a familiar, unfortunate story. It also has some especially troubling twists.

The basic pattern: Righthaven has brought over a hundred lawsuits in Nevada federal court claiming copyright infringement. They find cases by (a) scouring the Internet for parts of newspaper stories posted online by individuals, nonprofits, and others, (b) buying the copyright to that particular newspaper story, and then (c) proceeding to sue the poster for copyright infringement. Like the RIAA and USCG before them, Righthaven is relying on the fact that their victims may face huge legal bills through crippling statutory damages and the prospect of paying Righthaven's legal fees if they lose the case. Consequently, many victims will settle with Righthaven for a few thousand dollars regardless of their innocence, their right to fair use, or other potential legal defenses.

However, Righthaven is unlike other copyright trolls in some key ways:

• Righthaven is going after bloggers using text news stories for comment or discussion. Many lawsuit targets are using the newspaper articles to augment discussions about current events. Reposting all or part of news stories is part and parcel of digital commentary and discussion and usually the goal of the reposting is to share the uncopyrightable facts included in the article, not the copyrighted expression, like the specific turns of phrase used by the author. By targeting news, Righthaven's lawsuits could have a chilling effect on individuals' attempts to engage their communities in free and open discussion.
• Righthaven is fighting the basic mode of Internet debate. Other copyright trolls have involved controversy over file-sharing programs and encoded digital media, like music and movies. But Righthaven is taking aim at folks who are using elementary "copy & paste" functionalities. Online discussion survives and thrives on showing others the original text before adding a commentary or response. Accurate quoting is a virtue of Internet discussion that can minimize mischarcterization and support progress in a debate.
• Righthaven lawsuits are demanding that courts freeze and transfer the defendants' domain names. Imagine if a single copyright infringement on Huffingtonpost.com or Redstate.com could result in forfeiture of the entire domain. Effectively asking for control of all of a website's existing and future content -- instead of only targeting the allegedly infringing material -- is an overreaching remedy for a single copyright infringement not validated by copyright law or any legal precedent. This also indicates that the attorneys are willing to make overreaching claims in order to scare defendants into a fast settlement.
• Righthaven goes straight for litigation. Righthaven isn't sending cease and desist letters or DMCA takedown notices that would allow the targeted bloggers or website operators to remove or amend only the news articles owned by Righthaven. Instead, Righthaven starts with a full-fledged lawsuit in federal court with no warning. It's sue first and ask questions later, which smacks of a strategy designed to churn up legal costs and intimidate defendants into paying up immediately, rather than a strategy aimed at remedying specific copyright infringements.

Righthaven is claiming that its activities are intended to have a "deterrent effect" on the reposting of news stories online, but it's hard to resist viewing Righthaven's actions as purely business-related. In addition to the sharp legal tactics discussed above, Righthaven appears to only buy copyrights that it believes can be used for lawsuits and otherwise has no involvement in the practice of journalism.

Righthaven also appears to be soliciting other newspapers to sign on with it. But newspaper publishers who think that suing bloggers a story at a time will save journalism are sorely mistaken. Newspaper publishers have actually been having meaningful discussions about innovative business models to support real journalism. Sadly, Righthaven -- if it continues to attract clients -- threatens to derail those conversations with a sideshow proven to distract from progress.

But no matter where a newspaper may stand on the debate about journalism's future, we think it is abundantly clear that a "sue the audience" tactic is nowhere near worth considering. Newspapers should resist the temptation to put themselves into the same position as the music industry circa 2004, where futile lawsuits distracted them from the incorporating new technology and creating new ways to market product to fans.

EFF is watching Righthaven and other copyright trolls closely for overbroad tactics that hurt free speech and fair use, and abuse the legal system. We're looking for good cases to defend and will deliver more news and analysis as the issue develops.

Latinos for Internet Freedom, a new coalition of more than 40 organizations and groups, is advocating for an open and accessible Internet. And bloggers and nonprofits are now targets of a "lawsuit mill" that shakes down people for big sums of money for sharing articles and links.

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The Singapore government has recently launched a new program that would provide training to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) from the manufacturing industry in an effort to boost the country’s economic growth.

The program, which was developed by the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), will focus on providing managers from SME with trainings that would raise productivity and promote “excellent business operation”.

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San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a coalition of public interest groups and law professors have asked a California appeals court to protect craigslist from a lawsuit that could spur websites to be less helpful in responding to complaints about user behavior.

In Scott P. v. craigslist, Inc., the plaintiff complained about a series of craigslist ads he said were written by impersonators. While craigslist removed the ads within minutes of his phone calls, the plaintiff sued, contending that craigslist broke a promise to "take care of it" when the impersonators posted additional ads. In cases like these, federal law -- specifically Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act -- shields Internet forums like craigslist from liability. Section 230 was designed to encourage parties to pursue action against those who created the questionable content instead of the platform that hosted it. But the California Superior Court has ruled that this case can continue because of the plaintiff's allegations that craigslist said it would help.

Craigslist filed a writ petition with the Court of Appeal for the State of California Wednesday, arguing that the trial court should have dismissed the case because of Section 230's protections for forum hosts. In an amicus letter filed today in support of craigslist, EFF argues that the lower court reasoning could create a hole in Section 230, discouraging forum owners from helping users.

"Section 230 was a deliberate effort by Congress to encourage service providers to find innovative ways to self-regulate," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. "Yet craigslist is facing the prospect of extended litigation because it tried to do just that. Allowing this litigation to continue could result in websites being less helpful to users with complaints."

Additionally troublesome is the specter of further lawsuits, which could convince other Internet innovators not to host user content at all.

"Congress created Section 230 to allow for online interactivity without a flood of lawsuits. But this case could undermine the immunity that the law created," said Opsahl. "If litigation can survive merely because a plaintiff asserts that the site made a vague promise, sites may decide that allowing comments or user generated content is not worth the legal exposure. Then we'll lose the vibrant online environment that Section 230 helped create in the first place."

Joining EFF in the letter to court were the Center for Democracy and Technology, the Citizen Media Law Project, and law professors Eric Goldman, David S. Levine, David G. Post, and Jason Schultz. Separately, a group of Internet companies, including Yahoo!, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Google and Linkedin filed another amicus brief in support of craigslist.

For the full amicus letter:
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/craigslist_v_sup/EFFletter9210.pdf

For more on this case:
http://www.eff.org/cases/craigslist-v-superior-court-california

Contact:

Kurt Opsahl
Senior Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
kurt@eff.org

Exposure in overdrive ...The word is spreading

www.alecomm.com had over 2,000 visitors today.

Another 2.000 people are now aware of the henious crimes being carried against families and children across NSW by DOHS/DoCS

• DoCs ... The Regime

Singapore’s economy grew at a slightly slower pace in the first half of the year mainly because of the continued threat of the global financial crisis and the worsening economic condition in the United States and Europe, the government reported on Sunday.

In his televised speech on the eve of Singapore ’s 45th National Independence Day celebration, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong reported the country’s economy, as measured by its gross domestic product (GDP), has increased by 17.9 percent from January to June this year from 6.5 percent in the same period last year.

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Kim Booth MP Greens Racing spokesperson The Tasmanian Greens today called on Racing Minister Bryan Green to explain why the disqualification of a greyhound owned in part by Premier David Bartlett was overturned following intervention from the Director of Racing Tony Murray. Greens Racing spokesperson Kim Booth MP said the greyhound Toolong Terror [...]

Agreement for Parliamentary Reform (337KB) signed by Premier David Bartlett, Greens Leader Nick McKim and Liberal Leader Will Hodgman 3 September 2010

Tim Morris MP Greens Water spokesperson The Tasmanian Greens today called on Primary Industries Minister Bryan Green to explain why he told Parliament yesterday that detections of the herbicide MCPA in the Duck River were ‘well under’ the World Health Organisation guideline of 2 parts per billion (ppb), when in fact the readings were [...]

Nick McKim MP Greens Leader The Tasmanian Greens today called for any further works cease on the Brighton By-pass that could lead to impacts on the Jordan River Levee, in order to enable an appropriate management plan to be developed that reflects the needs of the Aboriginal community. Greens Leader Nick McKim MP [...]

Tim Morris MP Greens Water spokesperson The Tasmanian Greens today introduced their Chemical Trespass Bill 2010 into the State Parliament, continuing their campaign to eliminate chemical contamination of Tasmania’s waterways, drinking water supples and neighbouring land. Greens Water Spokesperson Tim Morris MP said that the Chemical Trespass Bill would ensure that the [...]

Paul ‘Basil’ O’Halloran MP Greens Member for Braddon The Tasmanian Greens today called on Labor to join the Greens in opposing the import of fresh potatoes from New Zealand for processing in Tasmania due to well-founded fears about the risks of importing the highly contagious Potato/Tomato Psyllid, which also causes Zebra Chip disease, along with the [...]

Paul ‘Basil’ O’Halloran MP Greens Health spokesperson and Member for Braddon The Tasmanian Greens today welcomed the commitment they obtained from Health Minister, Michelle O’Byrne, to provide dedicated oncologists to operate out of the North West Regional Hospital, saying that the Greens had taken to the last state election a proposal for at [...]

Kim Booth MP Greens Gaming spokesperson The Tasmanian Greens today said that they will bring on for debate the Gaming Control Amendment Bill which seeks to introduce a $1 bet limit on pokies, following the release of the latest monthly loss figures which reveal that Tasmanians lost $18, 912, 543 on pokies for [...]

Paul ‘Basil’ O’Halloran MP Greens Education spokesperson The Tasmanian Greens today congratulated all those involved in the annual PICSE Science Fair, which gives many primary students their first exposure to a University experience, and which involved science-based competition between teams from participating schools. Greens Education spokesperson and Member for Braddon, Paul ‘Basil’ O’Halloran MP, [...]

Kim Booth MP Greens Forests spokesperson The Tasmanian Greens today called on Forestry Minister Bryan Green to order Forestry Tasmania to cease deliberately targeting high conservation value forests for clearfelling in an attempt to prevent those areas from being conserved for future generations. Greens Forests spokesperson Kim Booth MP said the logging of [...]

Katrina's Destructive Aftermath - by Stephen Lendman

August 29, 2005, a day of infamy remembered less for the storm, catastrophic floods and destruction, and more as a metaphor for disaster capitalism, exploiting security threats, "terror" attacks, economic meltdowns, and "natural" disasters like Katrina.

It turned this aging senior into a writer and radio host, furious over federal, state and local authorities using it to reward business at the expense of New Orleans' poor Blacks. Five years later, their lives remain in disarray through no fault of their own.

Levies protecting their neighborhoods were left weak, vulnerable to fail as they did, then Congressman Richard Baker (R. LA) saying, "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it but God did," with considerable willful negligence help.

Malik Rahim, (New Orleans) Common Ground Relief (CGR) co-founder said:

"They wanted them poor niggers out of there and they ain't had no intention to allow it to be reopened to no poor niggers, you know? And that's just the bottom line."

Blank is beautiful. Ethnic cleansing was long-planned, the scheme, of course, to erase poor neighborhoods, replacing them with upscale condos and other high-profit projects on choice city land, New Orleans developer Joseph Canizaro saying, "we (now) have a clean (slate) to start (over and take advantage of) big opportunities."

A year later, an affected resident spoke for many saying:

"They('re) just messing all over us. Putting me out of our own house. We (try going) back and when we get there they got the police there putting us out....they ain't letting nobody in....but where (am I) going to go - me and my kids?"

Rahim calls New Orleans two cities, one "for the white and rich, (the other) for the poor and Blacks. (The former) recovered. They had a Jazz Fest....a Mardi Gras....But for those who haven't recovered, there's nothing." Most haven't been allowed back. Their neighborhoods were stolen for development, Katrina a chance to wage class warfare against them, no match for predators turning tragedy into profit.

It's a familiar pattern nationwide and in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, commerce following the flag abroad and exploiting natural disasters at home, complicit politicians easing "free market" solutions for the privileged.

Though no match against dark, entrenched forces, Rahim's Common Ground Relief fought back. Founded right after Katrina in the Lower 9th Ward, it's a volunteer not-for-profit organization running numerous projects, including new home construction, free medical and legal help, education for school children, community gardening, a women's shelter, job training, wetlands restoration, food security and environmental science.

By mobilizing people to work together against long odds, it provides hope through "short term relief for victims (and) long term support in rebuilding" destroyed communities. In the Lower 9th alone, 14,000 people and 4,800 homes were affected, most residents with longstanding neighborhood roots, enjoying "the highest percentage of African American home ownership of any city" in America. Losing them meant "the disappearance of (their) major asset, economic livelihood and, as a result, their future."

Bill Quigley is a longtime activist/Law Professor, Center for Constitutional Rights Legal Director, and former Loyola University, New Orleans Director of the Law Clinic and Gillis Long Poverty Law Center.

Three years post-Katrina, his aftermath assessment was disturbing but unsurprising, including:

-- renters getting no financial aid;

-- rental homes not repaired;

-- unaffordable housing for poor and low income people because rents, on average, rose 46%;

-- no rebuilding plans for destroyed public housing;

-- thousands of poor neighborhood homes demolished to prevent residents from returning;

-- half the city's public schools destroyed, replaced by privatized ones; today, 75% are for-profit, favoring Whites, shutting out Blacks;

-- all unionized city school employees fired, then selectively rehired for less pay and few or no benefits;

-- displaced Blacks entirely disenfranchised;

-- four of the 13 city Planning Districts as much at flood risk as before Katrina;

-- only 11% of Lower 9th families returned, the community formerly one of the richest culturally, now destroyed by design; today about 20% are back;

-- 25% of hospitals gone and 38% fewer beds available;

-- thousands still living in temporary trailers; many others displaced across other states, still unable to return;

-- 72,000 vacant, ruined or unoccupied houses;

-- the city's Black population reduced by half;

-- thousands of their children never returned to public schools;

-- new hurricane protection construction barely started, and much more, the city wrecked for corporate predators, the poor exploited for profit.

In his early August article titled, "Katrina Pain Index 2010 New Orleans," Quigley, Davida Finger and Lance Hill updated the disturbing picture, saying:

"....tens of thousands of (New Orleans) homes....remain vacant or blighted. Tens of thousands of African American children who were in the public schools (aren't) back, nor have their parents been able to return." The metro area lost over 140,000 people, the city itself over 100,000. "Thousands of elderly and displaced people (were affected). Affordable housing" is in short supply, poor and low income people forced either to pay up or do without.

Displaced residents were scattered across the country, in as many as 5,500 cities, "the largest concentrations in Houston, Dallas, Atlanta and San Antonio." Most are women. "A third earn less than $20,000 a year" - for a family of four, it's below the Census Bureau's $22,000 poverty threshold and well below minimum needs in any US metropolitan area.

In addition, one fourth of area housing is either vacant or blighted, "by far the highest" US rate. As a result, about 58% of city renters and 45% of suburban ones pay "more than 35 percent of (their) income on housing." Above 30% is unaffordable, forcing families to do without, including for essentials like enough nutritious food and health care, less available to poor people throughout the country, especially in New Orleans where the official poverty rate is double the national average. The unofficial one is even higher, given the indifference to Blacks communities five years post-Katrina.

In greater New Orleans, everything they need is in short supply, including schools, medical care, jobs, public assistance, and affordable housing, the number of public apartments down 75%. Destroying them was planned, upscale properties intended for well off White folks. Blacks aren't wanted.

The same holds for schools, mostly privatized, 85% of their students White in a formerly Black majority city. No longer, and a result, less public ones accommodate 43% fewer students, poor Blacks most affected. They also get less public assistance, fewer social services overall, or none at all.

The entire region was affected, nearly 100,000 square miles of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama communities destroyed or heavily damaged. Over one million people were permanently displaced. Hundreds of thousands lost everything, compounded by the spring Gulf disaster, the greatest ever environmental crime, potentially affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions.

Billions of dollars in promised aid never arrived, going instead for luxury hotels, casinos, private clubs, the oil industry and gentrification, the polite term for dispossessing poor communities, replacing them with upscale ones for the rich and well off, a similar pattern across the country, especially impacting Blacks and Latinos. They're victimized by class warfare under Democrat and Republican administrations, destroying the lives of millions. An uncaring nation left them on their own and out of luck.

New Orleans is a metaphor for as bad as it gets, poor Black communities devastated and ignored, most of the two hardest hit still uninhabited - the Lower 9th and St. Bernard Parish back to less than one fourth of pre-Katrina levels.

After it hit, FEMA provided 120,000 trailers throughout the region. Now, they're gone, sold at public auction, some to families using them. On August 20, Newsweek said only 860 Louisiana families were still accommodated, excluding buyers still in theirs.

Getting no federal, state or local help, others now pay unaffordable rents, live in destroyed or damaged houses, double up with relatives, or go homeless, the numbers twice the pre-Katrina rate, south Louisiana's social infrastructure gutted to displace Blacks for preferred Whites.

Even New Orleans levee rebuilding isn't finished, the Army Corps of Engineers estimating completion by late summer or early fall 2011 at the earliest. Some experts say the new system still won't protect adequately against another major hurricane.

Post-Katrina, New Orleans bears testimony to a callous, uncaring nation. "America the beautiful" is for the privileged alone - no one else, especially people of color, the poor and disadvantaged, "The Big Easy" their ground zero.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

The Mideast Solution (1)
-Time has Runout for Fascist Israel in Mideast (Part 31)
-DR. ABDUL RUFF

[Establishment of Secured Palestine state & Demilitarized Israel; Jerusalem as Palestine Capital; or, Shifting Israel back to Europe]

******

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Independant John Hatten is HELL BENT on ending the corruption of the Labour Party in NSW.

Please email John Hatton and inform him of your STOLEN CHILDREN ..sold to greedy NGO's such as Catholiccare and Life Without Barriers for $5,000 per week per child.

A light at the end of the tunnel.

All people at one time or another are going to hit rock bottom this could be due to money crisis most common or due to the fact that life has become overwhelming for some that hinders their functionality as a man of society.

In relation to the fact of becoming lost is that people sometimes reach that point in life after time and time again things haven’t worked out in accordance to their vision of happiness.

• What's on Your Mind!

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