Las Vegas Sun: University professors among latest sued over R-J copyrights
By Steve Green

Friday, Aug. 27, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.

Operators of four more websites were hit Thursday with copyright infringement lawsuits alleging material from the Las Vegas Review-Journal was posted on the sites without authorization.

The suits bring to 107 the number of copyright infringement lawsuits filed since March over online postings of Review-Journal stories.

The most recent targets, according to the Las Vegas Sun, are: Connie Hippen, who says on her Twitter account she’s a rancher in Wyoming and has a blog called http://deeprootsintoughtimes.blogspot.com, Jeff Buckner, who apparently lives in the Cincinnati area and whom Righthaven says has a website called www.jeffbuckner.us/mrchipper,MedicCom BBS and three “hosts” of the website who work at the University of Toledo – Dr. Paul Rega, Kelly Burkholder-Allen and Churton Budd. They’re accused of posting without authorization a Review-Journal story about a technique used for cardiac arrest patients.

Click here to read the full story in the Las Vegas Sun.

A federal judge on Thursday questioned Las Vegas copyright enforcement company Righthaven LLC about the litigation costs it’s expecting defendants to pay.

Righthaven since March has retroactively sued at least 103 website owners around North America after determining copyrights to Las Vegas Review-Journal stories were infringed on, and then obtaining the copyrights to those stories from the Review-Journal’s owner Stephens Media LLC.

Righthaven is owned by two limited liability companies, each with 50 percent stakes. One of the LLCs is owned by Las Vegas attorney Steven Gibson, the other by members of Arkansas investment banking billionaire Warren Stephens’ family. The Stephens family investments include Stephens Media and the Review-Journal.

Righthaven’s lawsuits are typically filed against website operators and bloggers without Righthaven first trying to resolve the infringement issues out of court.

Click here to read the full story in the Las Vegas Sun.

The delinquency rate for mortgage loans on one-to-four-unit residential properties dropped to a seasonally adjusted rate of 9.85 percent of all loans outstanding as of the end of the second quarter of 2010, a decrease of 21 basis points from the first quarter of 2010, and an increase of 61 basis points from one year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s National Delinquency Survey. The non-seasonally adjusted delinquency rate increased two basis points to 9.40 percent this quarter from 9.38 percent last quarter.

The percentage of loans on which foreclosure actions were started during the second quarter was 1.11 percent, down 12 basis points from last quarter and down 25 basis points from one year ago. Read the rest of this entry »

Consumer group offers help to defendants over R-J copyright suits
By Steve Green (contact)

Published Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010 | 9:26 a.m.

“The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an influential group that works to promote freedom of speech and consumer rights on the Internet nationwide, announced Wednesday it will try to help some of the defendants that have been sued by Righthaven LLC of Las Vegas for posting material online from the Las Vegas Review-Journal…The EFF called a recent series of lawsuits filed by the U.S. Copyright Group over movie downloads, implicating more than 14,000 people, ‘predatory copyright infringement lawsuits’ aimed at shaking out’”settlements from ordinary people with few resources to defend themselves.’…Wednesday, the EFF said it is seeking to assist defendants in the ‘Righthaven copyright troll lawsuits.’…’Righthaven, founded in March of 2010, files hundreds of copyright infringement lawsuits on behalf of newspaper publishers against bloggers who make use of news content without permission. To that end, Righthaven searches the Internet for stories and parts of stories from the newspapers that they represent. Once they find content that has been re-published, Righthaven purchases the copyright to the article and sues the owner of the blog,’ the EFF said”. Click here to read the full story in the Las Vegas Sun

…OR THE CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFECTIVE PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTITIONER

In most savvy and mature organizations today, the public relations function is accorded a prominent role in management decision making. Frequently, the senior public relations manager reports directly to top management; generally to the chief executive officer. The reason for this is simple: If public relations is to be the interpreter of management, then it must know what management is thinking at any moment on virtually every public issue. If public relations is made subordinate to any other discipline, e.g. marketing, advertising, legal or administration, then its independence, credibility, and, ultimately, value as an objective management counselor will be sacrificed. 

Whereas marketing and advertising groups must, by definition, be defenders of their specific products, the public relations department has no such mandated allegiance. Public relations should be the corporate conscience. An organization’s public relations professionals should enjoy enough autonomy to tell it to management “like it is.” If an idea doesn’t make sense, if a product is flawed, if the general institutional wisdom is wrong, it is the duty of the public relations professional to challenge the consensus. And, in absolute candor, if your company’s PR function isn’t saying “no” with great vigor from time to time, you’re probably not being well served and could well be headed for problems. Read the rest of this entry »