Judge Kane rules against Righthaven defendants motion for attorneys fees

Author: Silence DoGood

Source: FederalJack

Judge John Kane, of the Colorado District Court, has denied Defendant Brian D. Hill’s motion for attorneys fees as a sanction to Righthaven’s bad faith conduct and for their lack of standing to sue in the Nevada and Colorado cases.

David Kerr of Santangelo Law Offices in Fort Collins, Colo., an attorney who represented Hill, said he was disappointed in the ruling but respected it reported by Vegas Inc.

In this scribd document it states why Judge Kane denied the motion for attorneys fees.

You can read what all what the defendant has went through because of posts on FederalJack that are tagged under the term Righthaven.

The reason is stated on Westword that there is a statue that if Righthaven voluntarily dismisses a case then an award of attorneys fees cannot be granted.

Quoted from Westword

As Kane writes in his ruling, a statute expressly precludes the award of attorney fees if the case has been voluntarily dismissed, as Righthaven did in this case, sans what’s known as a “bad faith exception” — a sanction for bad-faith conduct during the course of litigation. He then notes that “there is substantial evidence that Righthaven has engaged in a pattern of filing copyright infringement suits against naive bloggers in order to secure settlement agreements, often with a minimal investment of time and effort.

Righthaven has mainly got away for it’s bad-faith conduct against Mr. Hill but Denver Post has announced that it’s parent corporation Media News Group Inc. will drop Righthaven as a client. That means that Righthaven can no longer buy copyrights under the Denver Post or any other Media News Group Inc. under their Strategic Alliance Agreement to sue individuals.

Brian Hill runs the website USWGO Alternative News that got dragged into the lawsuit through a subpoena by court order since the domain registered uswgo.com is under private registration. The website is a political alternative news and action center website that is dedicated to peacefully resist and expose the New World Order agenda and 3 of the articles Mr. Hill had typed are on Infowars.com, one of them talked about on Lew Rockwells blog, and others featured on DProgram.net. Mr. Hill claims he is a peaceful activist that will expose the New World Order master plan to the whole world.

Media News Group Inc. has 52 newspaper clients on-board with their corporation including The Denver Post, the Salt Lake Tribune and The Detroit News according to the Righthaven Victims blog. That makes a huge loss for Righthaven and has likely contributed to the fact that Righthaven may file for bankruptcy reported by Vegas Inc.

Vegas Inc and OneUtah reported that the Bad PR incurred by Righthaven’s treatment of Mr. Hill has likely led to Media News Group’s cutting of it’s contract with Righthaven and also likely due to it’s extended coverage in the NYTimes, International Herald Tribune (that is also apart of the Salt Lake Herald Tribune which is one of Media News Groups owned newspapers), WXII12, American Free Press, Fox8, and the Associated Press but the story regarding Righthaven coming after Brian being on AP have disappeared due to censorship influenced by an unknown party but it likely came from a Righthaven supporter or somebody that didn’t like the work that Brian does on USWGO.

So even if Righthaven wins the round for attorneys fees it is losing faith of it’s clients quickly and may demise within weeks to months.