A Las Vegas federal judge threatened to sanction copyright troll Righthaven, calling its litigation efforts Tuesday “disingenuous, if not outright deceitful.”

The blistering decision also places into doubt the litigation factory’s year-old business model, which is also under a Colorado federal judge’s microscope.

U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt of Nevada ordered Righthaven to explain why Hunt should not sanction it for trying to “manufacture standing.” Standing is a legal concept that has enabled Righthaven to bring 200-plus lawsuits on behalf of the copyrights owned by news agency Stephens Media of Las Vegas.

“The court believes that Righthaven has made multiple inaccurate and likely dishonest statements to the court,” (.pdf) Hunt wrote.

In all its lawsuits, Righthaven, which uses a loophole in copyright law to sue blogs and others for infringement, claims ownership of the copyright material even though judge Hunt found that it is not the real owner.

Judge Hunt’s diatribe was in a ruling in which he said Righthaven did not have standing to bring a copyright lawsuit against the Democratic Underground blog for allegedly pilfering four paragraphs from a 34-paragraph story published by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which is owned by Stephens Media. The judge suggested Righthaven never had standing because a “copyright owner cannot assign a bare right to sue.”

Hunt noted that Righthaven and Stephens Media had agreed to share the proceeds of any damages awards or settlements — but Stephens Media kept ownership of the copyright. Yet in in each of the 200 cases Righthaven brought on behalf of Las Vegas Review-Journal articles, Righthaven never disclosed, as required, whether third parties had a “pecuniary interest” in the outcome, the judge wrote.

He suggested Righthaven likely duped other judges to allow lawsuits on behalf of Stephens Media copyrights to go forward.

“Making this failure more egregious, not only did Righthaven fail to identify Stephens Media as an interested party in this suit, the court believes that Righthaven failed to disclose Stephens Media as an interested party in any of its approximately 200 cases filed in this district,” Hunt ruled. “Accordingly, the court orders Righthaven to show cause, in writing, no later than two weeks from the date of this order, why it should not be sanctioned for this flagrant misrepresentation to the court.”

An internal agreement between Righthaven and Stephens Media gives the Review-Journal’s owner and Righthaven each a 50 percent stake in any settlements or verdicts. The accord said Stephens Media shall retain “an exclusive license to exploit the Stephens Media assigned copyrights for any lawful purpose whatsoever and Righthaven shall have no right or license to exploit or participate in the receipt of royalties from the exploitation of the Stephens Media assigned copyrights other than the right to proceeds in association with a recovery.”

Illustration: redtimmy/Flickr