How do we protect M4C from being shut down?

[Irish]

The title of this thread may sound a little over dramatic but believe me, it's not. I scour the news every day and find a myriad of articles that I find interesting, some I post here and some I don't, but I found this to be very interesting. Due to the nature of the articles I'm including a small snippet from them, please feel free to click on the link and read the articles in their entirety.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/armed...ringement-suit

On July 21st, The Armed Citizen received an indirect and informal notice of a lawsuit against this website and its owners, David Burnett and Clayton Cramer.
The suit, reportedly filed in US District Court on July 20th, alleges that The Armed Citizen and its owners "willfully copied" and infringed on original source content from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
According to news reports, Righthaven LLC has filed lawsuits against no less than 80 other political websites and individual blogs for "infringement."
Righthaven has offered no prior contact, cease-and-desist warnings or any attempt at good-faith resolution whatsoever.
Other defendants include FreeRepublic.com, the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and the Democrat National Committee of Nevada.
The "offending" entries reprinted on The Armed Citizen consist of six stories originating from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. There are several mitigating factors to consider:

•The Armed Citizen has posted nearly 4,700 such stories from a plethora of sources.

•Some of the stories were short enough to qualify under the Fair Use Rule, even disregarding that the goal of this website is academic, informational and in the public interest, not commercial.

•The stories – which were also properly cited and attributed – are still publicly available on the Las Vegas Review-Journal's website.

•Some of these stories were posted on the website as far back as six years ago.

To the best of our knowledge, statutory damages can only be awarded if the plaintiff owns copyright on the articles in question. Righthaven sought and received a copyright on at least one of the articles in question on July 6...several months after the alleged offense. Clearly, this group is interested in money, not resolution.
The Armed Citizen has been excerpting articles from newspaper, TV station, and radio station websites for a number of years without a single complaint or infringement notice. If any copyright holders decided that The Armed Citizen had exceeded fair use, they only needed to send us an email. (Indeed, on the YouTube channel for The Armed Citizen, multiple news outlets have acknowledged copyright, yet chosen to let the content stay active for mutual benefit.)
Instead, in an apparent eagerness to intimidate small websites, Righthaven has chosen to pursue legal action.
Until this matter can be resolved, and a thorough review of Armed Citizen content can be made, all updates and archives at The Armed Citizen are hereby suspended.
At this time, the future of The Armed Citizen is uncertain, and possibly in jeopardy, thanks to Righthaven LLC and the Las VegasReview-Journal.
We recognize that our readers will be shocked and disappointed. If you wish to help, please contact the Review-Journal and their advertisers to express your dismay at this unprecedented harshness. Your voice may be the only thing left that can save this website. (The Armed Citizen encourages such contact only on the condition that you say nothing that would reflect poorly on the website or its readership.)

[Irish]

I obtain a lot of self defense shooting related articles from the Armed Citizen, the website has been closed down. http://www.thearmedcitizen.com/

Intro not included.....

Until this matter can be resolved, and a thorough review of Armed Citizen content can be made, all updates and archives at The Armed Citizen are hereby suspended.

At this time, the future of The Armed Citizen is uncertain, and possibly in jeopardy, thanks to Righthaven LLC and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Click here to read a copy of the lawsuit (as forwarded by a reporter…The Armed Citizen has received no official notice of pending litigation.)

Please consider donating using the link on your right to help offset the legal costs of this lawsuit.

To e-mail David and Clayton, write to Tips@thearmedcitizen.com

[Irish]

This is probably the best article... The guy needs a swift kick in the nuts. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...g-for-dollars/

Steve Gibson has a plan to save the media world’s financial crisis — and it’s not the iPad.

Borrowing a page from patent trolls, the CEO of fledgling Las Vegas-based Righthaven has begun buying out the copyrights to newspaper content for the sole purpose of suing blogs and websites that re-post those articles without permission. And he says he’s making money.

“We believe it’s the best solution out there,” Gibson says. “Media companies’ assets are very much their copyrights. These companies need to understand and appreciate that those assets have value more than merely the present advertising revenues.”



Read More http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...#ixzz0uuarTZZN

Gibson’s vision is to monetize news content on the backend, by scouring the internet for infringing copies of his client’s articles, then suing and relying on the harsh penalties in the Copyright Act — up to $150,000 for a single infringement — to compel quick settlements. Since Righthaven’s formation in March, the company has filed at least 80 federal lawsuits against website operators and individual bloggers who’ve re-posted articles from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, his first client.

Read More http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...#ixzz0uubI4leL

[MTechnik]

A) a good legal fund if necessary.
B) Don't allow willful copyright theft - if someone wants to copy an article from a newspaper or other source, have them include a link, and no more than 2/3 of the article text.

Really, the best way to protect yourself is to set hard rules to not allow the kinds of things that he legally (but not exactly ethically) has at his disposal to 'generate revenue'.

If M4C.net doesn't allow wholesale reposting of articles, they can't be said to be harboring an environment that encourages copyright abuse. Otherwise, there needs to be legal speak stating that posters are responsible for their own posts, etc...

Then, if some chumbucket comes looking for moolah, M4C can say "we didn't steal copyrighted material, nor did we allow it to be posted, and enforced those rules. maybe we missed one here or there, but those are rare exceptions. And the users are responsible for their own content." and let the lawyer smile and take care of the suit with little hassle or cost to M4C's legal fund.

[Irish]

Obviously it's up to the owners of the site in conjunction with the mods but it may be time to institute a rule on posting complete articles in the forum.

[MTechnik]

And wtf, pleated khakis with a pinstripe vest? WHAT?!

Come on now.

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

All hail M5C!

I was wondering when this was going to come up. Patent troll lawyers looking for a new quick buck when they should get a quick kick in the nuts.

[Von Rheydt]

A similar thing hapened in Germany a few years ago ........... German correctness and efficiency.

I know that the Forums more or less:

1. Sent notices to all members advising them of the situation,

2. Told members of their responsibilities regarding the law,

3. Advised members that should there be any backlash from copyright infringement that the legal ramifications would be passed down to the member responsible for the offending post,

4. The worst thing was that moderators had to become more active in their policing of posts, content and threads. This meant:

a. Enforcing the posting of copyright and source accreditation

b. And, deleting posts and threads if there could be a potential problem.

This seems to have worked for them.

Of course, the other possibility is that you have the forum hosted on servers outside of the USA and use offshore PO Boxes.

[pilotguyo540]

Prissy little d bag! I wonder if he will sue for posting his interview as a warning.

[HES]

B) Don't allow willful copyright theft - if someone wants to copy an article from a newspaper or other source, have them include a link, and no more than 2/3 of the article text.

This, I think is the best protection. I am staff on another board that Paramount Pictures takes great interest in and this is the guidance they gave us to keep out of trouble.