Copyright troll Righthaven told a federal judge Thursday that it has revised its contract with the Las Vegas Review-Journal to give it full copyright ownership over some of the newspapers’ content. It’s a bid to squelch a legal controversy over whether it has the right to sue bloggers who’ve quoted from the articles without permission.

Three decisions in the past week found that Righthaven, which has lodged more than 200 suits, never had standing to sue over content produced by Stephens Media publications, including the Review-Journal. In one ruling, U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt dismissed Righthaven’s well-publicized case against the Democratic Underground blog, finding that Righthaven attempted to “manufacture” standing to sue. In that case, Democratic Underground was targeted for posting four paragraphs from a 34-paragraph story published by the paper.

Hunt noted that Righthaven and Stephens Media had agreed to share the proceeds of any damage awards or settlements — but Stephens Media kept ownership of the copyrights in the articles, which meant Righthaven had no right to sue over the work. Two other Righthaven cases met the same fate this week.

With its entire business model at risk, Righthaven countered this week, asking Judge Hunt to reopen the case and allow Democratic Underground to be held liable again for last August’s alleged infringement. Righthaven said the year-old agreement between Stephens Media and Righthaven has been altered, and now gives Righthaven standing to sue.

“… Under the amendment, Righthaven is the assignee and sole owner of the copyrighted work at issue (.pdf) in this case,” Righthaven told Judge Hunt in a filing Thursday.

Whether Hunt will reopen the matter is unclear. Last week, he called the amended agreement “cosmetic,” but did not rule on its validity.

Righthaven, which received a $500,000 investment from Stephens Media, still hopes it can make a scalable business out of suing people for clipping newspaper articles online.

Steve Gibson, Righthaven’s CEO, said in an interview last week that he was unfazed by the recent rulings against him. Because the statute of limitations for copyright infringement is three years, that gives him plenty of time to build a paper trail with Stephens Media that can withstand the court challenges.

The Copyright Act allows for damages of up to $150,000 per infringement.

More than 100 bloggers and websites settled with Righthaven before the issue of Righthaven’s standing to sue was brought to light. They are now mulling potential legal recourse.

Illustration: Electronic Frontier Foundation

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