by 65 years ago today, Japan announced their acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and hostilities ended in the Pacific.
RightHaven LLC Opposition Organizing
If you are a mom and pop blogger, getting hit with a Federal lawsuit out of the blue has got to be terrifying. Many of those being sued by RightHaven LLC do not have deep pockets and are afraid that they will lose everything. Clayton Cramer reported that some of those being sued will probably have to declare bankruptcy.
Fortunately, its seems that the victims and those opposed to RightHaven’s tactics have started to organize. Realizing that information is key, a new website has been established called RightHavenLawsuits.com. They say their mission “is dedicated to gathering together and posting for the public information about Righthaven LLC.” They have links to some of the lawsuits as well as articles on RightHaven LLC.
Another website called RightHaven Victims lists every individual, business, and blog that has been sued by RightHaven LLC for copyright violations. It encourages those sued to work together to share information and to unite to form a collective front against RightHaven LLC. They realize that one of the keys to RightHaven’s success will be the use of a “divide and conquer” strategy. This website is also sharing defense strategies being used by the defendants.
A Facebook page has been established called “stop the LVRJ/RIGHTHAVEN witch hunt!” In addition to providing resources for those being sued, they are also seeking to publicize that RightHaven LLC did not give any sort of “cease and desist” or take-down letter before suing. While not required in most cases, it is the common practice to do so.
Finally, law professor Eric Johnson has a new post on his blog, Blog Law Blog, on the RightHaven LLC lawsuits. The post, entitled “Righthaven’s Innovation? Stooping Lower”, sets forth his opinion on what they are doing.
I think what the Las Vegas Review-Journal and its thugster stooge Righthaven are doing is completely obnoxious. It reeks. It also makes the Las Vegas Review-Journal look like a pack of feral alley dwellers instead of an earnest news organization that is deserving of the public trust.
That said, Professor Johnson goes on to say that the lawsuits are not frivolous. The suits are based upon perceived copyright violations that are actionable. The law makes it easy to sue for copyright violations and they are using it. That said, he notes as we go through life we come upon many opportunities to sue others. What makes our system of civil law work, however, it that we exercise restraint and discretion in filing lawsuits. If we didn’t, the courts would be clogged.
Professor Johnson finds it particularly objectionable that the Las Vegas Review Journal and their extension RightHaven LLC are filing their lawsuits without making any attempt to resolve the disputes informally. He concludes:
Righthaven and its associated newspapers are on the cutting edge because they have stooped lower than anyone else in the news business has been willing to go. That’s nothing to be proud of.
I couldn’t agree more.
UPDATE: My first Instalanche! Welcome Instapundit readers. Stay a while and visit.
If you want to read more about the RightHaven LLC lawsuits go to posts here and here. I have a couple other posts on RightHaven LLC here and here as well.
UPDATE II: If you would like to listen to an interview with Clayton Cramer, he was a guest on Tom Gresham’s GunTalk Radio show last Sunday. The episode can be found here or on iTunes. The interview with Clayton begins at about the 24:20 mark.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn – Ban on Semi-Auto’s OK with Him
From the Illinois State Rifle Association:
Governor Quinn Steps Up Attacks On Law-Abiding Firearm Owners
CHICAGO, Aug. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following was released today by the ISRA Political Victory Fund (ISRA-PVF):
Law-abiding Illinois firearm owners are under a renewed attack by Gov. Pat Quinn’s re-election campaign. After receiving the endorsement of a radical gun control group last week, Quinn’s campaign is now the apparent mastermind of a plan to place a referendum on the November ballot that would call for the banning of a wide variety of popular hunting and target firearms.
Petition documents filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections show the title of the proposed referendum as being “Petition to Ban the Sale on Semi-Automatic and Assault Weapons.” Notarized signatures on over 100 pages of petitions show one “Maz Jackson” as being the petition circulator. Maz Jackson is a top field operative for the Quinn gubernatorial re-election campaign.
“It appears that Pat Quinn plans to attack hunters and sportsmen from every angle,” commented ISRA-PVF spokesman, Richard Pearson. “First he throws in with the likes of gun control extremists Jim and Sarah Brady, and now his campaign staff is circulating petitions seeking to ban most of the privately owned firearms in the state. Once again, Pat Quinn has shown himself to be more in step with Mayor Daley and the Chicago power structure than he is with the vast majority of Illinois citizens.”
The ISRA-PVF is a political action committee affiliated with the Illinois State Rifle Association. Donations to the ISRA-PVF are not tax deductible. A copy of our report is available for a fee from the Illinois State Board of Elections, Springfield, IL
Roberta X has good coverage of it on her blog.
As one of those who visits relatives in Illinois, their gun rules are enough to make you want to pound your head on the wall. I remember the first time I went into the local gun store in O’Fallon, Ron & Jo’s, and was told I couldn’t buy ammo because I didn’t have either a FOID card or a hunting license. I was like “WTF?”. They apologized and said it was Illinois law.
Best Comment on RightHaven LLC
The Las Vegas Sun had a story today saying two more defendants reached confidential settlements with Steve Gibson and Righthaven LLC.
Jack Wooden of Columbus, Indiana who runs an outdoor site called madjacksport.com and Pennwell Corporation, an Oklahoma company which runs an energy information website, pennenergy.com, are reported to have settled their lawsuits with RightHaven LLC.
“BobbyG” in the comments section wins the comment of the day award with this:
Get me re-write:
“Righthaven LLC, the company suing website owners over copyrights to Las Vegas Review-Journal stories, has coerced confidential extortion agreements with two more defendants.”
Winchester Plans Moving Center-Fire Ammo Plant
According to stories in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Alton, IL Telegraph, the Winchester Ammunition division of Olin Corporation is exploring plans to move their East Alton, IL center-fire ammunition plant to Oxford, Mississippi. Winchester had moved their rimfire ammunition production to Oxford in 2004.
Managers announced the plans to workers last Thursday (August 5th). At stake are about 1,000 jobs. According to statements from the River Bend Growth Association, Winchester is the area’s largest employer with about 1,700 employers. The move, if Winchester goes ahead with it, would be completed over three to five years.
Two factors that may be behind the move are Olin’s property tax dispute with Madison County, Illinois and the need to lower labor costs.
One of the factors driving Olin’s decision may be its Madison County property tax. The corporation has appealed its East Alton facilities’ assessed value each year since 2003, said Kerry Miller, chairman of the Madison County Board of Review.
Last year, the Board of Review, which hears property assessment appeals, put the company’s property value at $36 million. Olin’s appraisers, however, put the market value of its property at $17 million. Olin has appealed the Review Board’s valuation, and it is pending in Illinois’ appellate court, Miller said.
Labor costs would probably be lower for Winchester in Mississippi than in East Alton. The workers at the East Alton plant are represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 9.While not explicitly stated in either story, it seems to be understood that the Mississippi plant is non-union.
Neither the mayor of Oxford, MS nor the Mississippi Development Authority would not say anything more than they work “to retain and support existing businesses”. Illinois officials were not so reticent.
State Sen. William Haine, D-Alton, said he got a call about the potential move from one of the company’s lobbyists the day before the announcement. He said he is not sure what motivated the decision.
“I’m shocked, to tell you the truth,” he said. “I thought they were making money there.”
The state could look at some kind of tax abatement for the company’s facilities in Alton, but “there isn’t any pot of money in Springfield to hand over to anyone,” Haine said.
“We don’t know how to proceed as a state,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to assemble an incentive package when we don’t know what’s driving their decision. And B, it’s evident the state of Illinois doesn’t have any money.”
And from the Mayor of East Alton to the Telegraph:
East Alton Mayor Fred Bright said it would hurt his community, but his experience with the company shows that is not a major concern for management.
“Olin cares for nothing but Olin, itself,” Bright said.
Mayor Bright’s attitude sounds real helpful in attempting to keep his city’s largest employer. At least State Sen. Haine is realistic enough to realize that the State of Illinois doesn’t have the money to pay them to stay.
Winchester has had a presence in East Alton since 1892 when the Equitable Powder Company was founded there by Franklin W. Olin. Ammunition production began in 1898 with the opening of the Western Cartridge plant.
UPDATE: Sam Pierce of the Illinois Review gives more perspective on Winchester’s plans to move. He worked in the Engineering Dept of Winchester for almost 10 years at the East Alton plant. After reading his piece, I’m surprised that Olin didn’t move the plant years ago.
Now This IS Copyright Violation
Unlike the bloggers who may have inadvertantly gone beyond fair use and are being sued by RightHaven LLC, a video released by the Violence Policy Center after the Manchester, CT shootings last week is probably a good case for copyright violation. It is a mashup of news footage and Ruger advertising materials including video of Gunsite’s Ed Head talking about the SR9c. Ruger claims copyright to their materials on their website.
In true VPC style, they confuse the Handgun of the Year Ruger SR9c (compact) with the full-size SR9 that was used by the killer. So far only 350 people have viewed their propaganda piece. Judging by the comments, I’d wager a good number of them are pro-gun folks.
H/T Jim Shepherd’s OutdoorWire
Tactical Pet Clothing
You have a dog and you want it to be tactical. The only problem is that instead of a German Shepherd, Doberman, or Rottweiler you have a little yapping ankle biter. Now it is no problem anymore thanks to the folks who have produced the Tacticool dog sweater.
Let’s get real here. What says tactical more than a silhouette of an AR-15 with a red dot scope? I sure wish they made it in either camo or Coyote brown!
False Front Blog
Thirdpower over at Days of Our Trailers reports on a seemingly gun blog that is actually run by the New England Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence. The name of the blog is Ohh Shoot.
Of course, they don’t allow any comments on their blog posts. These false front organizations don’t want anything to disturb the Potemkin Village image that they seek to portray.
City of San Francisco Must Have a Big Legal Budget
From the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms:
SAN FRANCISCO EYES AMMUNITION
REGISTRY – CCRKBA VOWS LAWSUITBELLEVUE, WA – Today’s revelation that the City of San Francisco might consider an ammunition registry scheme brought a promise from the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms that a lawsuit would quickly follow.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said in a report in the San Francisco Examiner that Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier is working with the City Attorney’s Office to “craft legislation” regarding an ammunition registry shows the city has learned nothing from its defeat in court over a 2005 gun ban proposition. CCRKBA joined the Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association and other plaintiffs in the lawsuit that nullified the ban because it violates state statute. Now that the Second Amendment has been incorporated to the states by the U.S. Supreme Court, proposals like this one are even more dubious, he observed.
“It appears that Alioto-Pier is trying to be too clever by half,” Gottlieb said. “It’s a de facto registration scheme hiding behind a make-believe effort to crack down on violent crime, and she knows it. We will fight it.”
He noted that it is ironic for the city to be considering such an idea on the eve of the annual Gun Rights Policy Conference, scheduled for the weekend of Sept. 24-26 at the San Francisco Airport Hyatt Regency hotel. Gun rights activists and experts from across the nation will gather at the hotel to discuss recent court cases, current legal actions and anti-gun proposals like the one now reportedly being formulated by Alioto-Pier.
“It would seem to me that with the state’s economy in tatters, cutbacks in public safety budgets and federal courts mandating that more criminals must be released from prisons that the city would not make it harder for citizens to defend themselves,” Gottlieb stated. “But in San Francisco, it is politically fashionable to penalize honest people for the misbehavior of the criminal element. It makes you wonder whose side the government is on.
“You can bet we’ll be discussing this at our conference in September,” he concluded. “Ms. Alioto-Pier has an open invitation to attend and explain her scheme to a room full of experts.”
It’s All Marko’s Fault
I am a loyal reader of Marko Kloos’s blog, The Munchkin Wrangler. His posts on fountain pens for writing caused me to again start using them. He also pointed readers towards a forum called The Fountain Pen Network which has reviews of pens and ink along with a very good classified section.
If it weren’t for Marko, I wouldn’t have seen this pen and given it more than 30 seconds of thought. I mean, does anyone really need a $125 Pelikan fountain pen highlighter when you can get a Bic one for 99 cents? That could buy a heck of a lot of ammo!
PS: I’m not buying the pen but I think it is really cool. If you want it with a 15% discount, use the code FPN and go here.