Las Vegas Review-Journal owner Stephens Media, which pioneered print-based copyright trolling last year, is publicly blasting bloggers who republish the news without permission.

In a brief filed late Monday defending the legality of its copyright-infringement litigation strategy, the chain said the news industry faces “a myriad of challenges that threaten their survival in the digital era.” Among the top ones is online, unauthorized aggregation of their work, the chain said.

That is why it contracted with Righthaven, a new copyright-trolling-litigation venture that says it acquires copyrights from Stephens Media and sues bloggers for unauthorized display of those stories — about 200 cases in all since Righthaven was founded last year.

“In light of the parasitic business model (.pdf) employed by many website operators, Stephens Media contracted with Righthaven in an effort to curb the unauthorized use of its original content on the World Wide Web,” Stephens Media lawyer Colby Williams told U.S. District Judge Judge Roger Hunt.

Hunt ordered Stephens Media and Righthaven last month to respond to internal documents revealed in a case before his court. The documents seemingly showed that Stephens did not actually convey the copyrights to Righthaven, although Righthaven claims in court documents that it is the copyright owner. The Electronic Frontier Foundation told the judge that the arrangement was a “sham” and that Righthaven has no legal standing to sue.

The legal flap was brought to light in a Righthaven case against the Democratic Underground blog. Righthaven sued the site after a user posted four paragraphs from a 34-paragraph Las Vegas Review-Journal story on Sharron Angle, the unsuccessful Nevada Republican candidate for U.S. senator.

The EFF asked Judge Hunt to order Righthaven and Stephens Media to divulge their business arrangement. The document, unsealed last month, showed that Righthaven may not own the rights to reproduce, distribute, display or prepare derivative works of the articles it is suing over. In that light, the EFF is demanding Hunt award attorneys’ fees and possibly damages for allegedly wrongly bringing the case against Democratic Underground.

But Righthaven chief executive Steve Gibson told the court late Monday that the arrangement, which has been amended to clear up any confusion, is all on the up and up.

Gibson told Hunt that Stephens Media has assigned “all rights, title and interest” to the works that are the subject or Righthaven lawsuits. “Following such an assignment, the parties intended to permit Stephens Media to continue to display or otherwise use the assigned content through the grant of a license from Righthaven,” (.pdf) Gibson wrote.

Hunt said he ordered the agreement unsealed because “there is certainly an interest and even a right in all the other defendants sued by plaintiff to have access to this material” (.pdf).

Under the amended licensing agreement between Righthaven and Stephens Media, the news outlet will pay Righthaven $1 annual royalties to use the copyright works it has ceded to Righthaven. The original internal agreement also gives Stephens Media and Righthaven each a 50 percent stake in any settlements or verdicts.

“Righthaven’s desperate attempt to rewrite its sham assignment comes too little and too late,” said Kurt Opsahl, an EFF attorney on the case.

No hearing date has been scheduled. The EFF must file a written response to the court by May 20.

Top photo courtesy tykxman/Flickr.

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