Amid Criticism, Las Vegas Law Firm Fires Off Volley of 15 Copyright Infringement Lawsuits In September

Righthaven LLC, a law firm in Las Vegas that has become known for its frequent filing of lawsuits against individuals for re-posting copyrighted newspaper articles online without permission, has filed 15 of these lawsuits so far this September. That brings the total number of copyright infringement suits its brought to 129 this year.

Two of the latest targets named in one of the suits filed Monday are Donald Schultz and Travis Nagle, two of the names associated with the running of the web site named "The Terra News," a site billing itself as one about the energy and water industries.

The site says that Schultz, of Sacramento, California, began sharing news and information about the energy industry online during the California energy crisis between 2000 and 2002. He is a retired analyst at the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission.

All of the suits have been filed over the allegedly infringing use of articles from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The firm's activities have become so prolific that a web site has been created to keep track at Righthavenlawsuits.com.

Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation has criticized Righthaven's approach because the targets of the lawsuits have said that they have not received cease-and-desist letters prior to being sued.