US Marshals Ordered To Seize Righthaven Property

An anonymous reader writes "Troubled times ahead for Righthaven, as Ars Technica reports that the U.S. Marshals have been instructed 'to use "reasonable force" to seize $63,720.80 in cash and/or assets from the Las Vegas copyright troll after Righthaven failed to pay a court judgment from August 15.'"

take their servers and router

[swschrad]

and sell them at sheriff's auction.

A pity...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I'm assuming that any real money(if Righthaven wasn't itself the assetless shell company being used by the real money) will already have been snuck of the premises by various means, with nothing but a bunch of leased office furniture and a few cheap suits on site; but some days watching those who would crush others with the force of law having their stuff dumped into the street and sold off is just satisfying...

The cyclically-evicted members of the poor are all too familiar with the treatment; but we don't give it to the arrogant nearly as often as would be socially useful...

This victory is relatively insignificant

[Anonymous Coward]

This victory is relatively insignificant compared to the massive corporate extortion schemes from the likes of MPAA/RIAA, tech companies, and other industry giants, that go unabated.

Re:Make an example out of them

[characterZer0]

Copyright laywer troll companies beware!

Really?

1. Set up shell company.
2. Shake down people for easy money
3. Pay yourself lots of money immediately.
4. Let shell company go bankrupt.
5. Profit!!!

No question marks. This formula will be repeated over and over. Probably by the same people.

Retribution

[bill_mcgonigle]

but some days watching those who would crush others with the force of law having their stuff dumped into the street and sold off is just satisfying

Retribution does satisfy the primal urges, but it doesn't help me all that much (as a member of this society).

I want to be able to search a database of scumbags - their name, dob, and known mailing addresses, so I can avoid ever getting into a business transaction with them. The US Marshalls stealing their copy machine doesn't actually help society in any meaningful way.

Retributive justice is deeply ingrained in human society, but we have the tools to progress beyond that now.

Re:A pity...

[Hatta]

Righthaven didn't even own the copyrights to the files they were suing about. I doubt they have much else. What really needs to happen is disbarment of their legal staff.

Re:A pity...

[Nethemas the Great]

Nope, that's the beauty of the limited liability guaranteed to proprietors of Corps., S-Corps., LLCs., etc.. They'll just let the old corp burn, file some paper, incorporate as Righthaven 2.0 and are back in business once again. No one is held responsible for stupid business practices unless they happen to exist within the set of illegal business practices and then if and only if they neglected to strategically apply lubrication.

Re:Retribution

[Hatta]

It is almost certain that any such database would end up in the hands of someone who should be in the database.

Re:Make an example out of them

[firex726]

Can you cite where the copyrights were transferred to them?
As I recall that was the whole point of the issues to begin with, was that they were suing without ownership.

Re:A pity...

[Rogerborg]

Sadly, the, uh bar for disbarment is set very high. You have to be absolutely whackadoodle moonbat crazy like Jack Thompson [wikipedia.org] to be in with shout.

Re:take their servers and router

[Anrego]

Much as I love the image of the police carting out Righthavens office furnature while some guys in suits quietly weep in the corner.. I imagine all the real assets are long gone, and the actual guys behind it all safely out of the way. Righthaven will go under.. and then re-emerge as a different LLC and keep right on trucking.

Not saying this isn't awesome, but lets not delude outselves to the nature of these trolls.

Re:take their servers and router

[Captain Splendid]

Why would a law firm own their IT infrastructure

Massive need for confidentiality perhaps?

Re:take their servers and router

[GodInHell]

Uhm. No.

First, you need some significant in-house resources just to connect a few hundred computers to the internet. Those aren't free. Notably, that would include routers, as the Grandfather suggested. Second, we cannot allow client data to be outside our control -- that would endanger confidentiality. In Illinois (and in every other state, I guarantee) attorneys are responsible for retaining and protecting client information -- including things like draft memos and attorneys' notes -- from access by any third party without client permission. That's why, for example, I couldn't use google-docs when I was running a solo practice. Even though I could lock access to the documents so only I could view the document, google's privacy policy (at the time I have not verified) gave them the right to view documents in their system. It is -my- responsibility to protect my client's information from search and seizure by the Gov't or a police agency. By entrusting my data to a datacluster, I could lose control of client data and not even know until I get hit for breaching the rules of professional conduct.

That's just two of the reasons its good to have in-house hardware. I haven't even dipped my toe into how useful leases are for defraying or reducing tax liability, and the myriad other more financial driven reasons why I might want to have an internal IT team.

Warning: the above is not legal advice. You are not my client. If you have a question, seek an attorney licensed in your state, not the ramblings of a lawyer on /.

-GiH