Net Troll Co-Defendant Lose Motion, Wins Battle

Jul 12, 2011

Net Troll Co-Defendant Lose Motion, Wins Battle

Denise Nichols served 20 years during the Vietnam War and Gulf War as a military era as a military nurse saving the lives of our servicemen and women. In her retirement, she spends her time advocating for veterans, efforts for which she became a target of Righthaven LLC, a notorious Internet troll and as anti-American an outfit as you will ever encounter.

For Denise Nichols' efforts for veterans, earlier this year she was hit a with a $150,000 federal copyright complaint that failed ONCE even to mention her in the complaint. Welcome to the World of Righthaven.

As the Steve Green reports today: U.S. District Judge Gloria Navarro

rejected a request by [Michael] Leon’s co-defendant and fellow veterans' advocate, Denise Nichols, that she require Righthaven to reimburse her for $1,500-$1,600 in legal costs.

After settlement talks broke down between Righthaven and Nichols in the suit over an alleged infringement of a Denver Post column, Righthaven dropped its suit against Nichols with prejudice – meaning it can’t sue her again over the same alleged infringement. ...

Nichols, who lives in the Denver area, says she has symptoms of Gulf War syndrome illnesses from her combat service in the first Gulf War, Desert Storm, and that the stress of Righthaven’s no-warning lawsuit is threatening to harm her health further.

What happens is Judge Navarro very early in an April 20 hearing gave Nichols and me a choice to:

Have our respective cases dismissed with prejudice, with no attorneys' fee
Have our respective cases dismissed without prejudice, with attoneys' fees

I lucked out and was able to receive the services of attorney J. Malcolm Devoy of the Randazza Legal Group who advised a dismissal without prejudice, with attoneys' fees, in light of the apparent lack of standing and deceitful nature of Righthaven.

I became the first prevailing defendant after it came to light that Righthaven, as revealed by its Strategic Alliance Agreement (SAA), has no standing to sue, a revelation that showed Righthaven to be guilty of "fraud upon the Copyright Office," as well as deceiving defendants and federal judges.

Righthave lies in federal court even now as my attoneys attempt to collect what they were awarded.

Righthaven responded on Tuesday, asking Judge Navarro to temporarily stay judgment of her fee award "so that it can properly evaluate any potential appealable issues" in her fee ruling.

"As the court is certainly aware, Righthaven’s counsel dismissed the action against Leon without prejudice based on the belief that any resulting fee award would be made to a non-profit legal organization. Counsel certainly did not believe this `non-profit legal organization’ would be opposing counsel’s law firm. Had this fact been made clear, Righthaven would have unquestionably dismissed its claims against Leon with prejudice," Righthaven argued in Tuesday’s court filing. [Green]

Nichols, who attended the hearing telephonically from a D.C. VA medical center, offered to engage in good-faith negotiations. Righthaven refused at every turn to pay her attorneys' fees and then discharged her as a defendant, leaving her stuck with $1,600 in attorneys' fees.

But Righthaven conned a U.S. military veteran, and they will lose.

They lost with decorated Vietnam War veteran, Wayne Hoehn.

Still, because the standing issue is still being litigated, and Righthaven sued and ran, discharging Nichols, she is out $1,600.

Randazza Legal Group attorneys Marc Randazza and J. Malcolm DeVoy IV wrote in their filing for Mr. Hoehn:

This pattern of conduct evinces Righthaven’s total disregard for even the notion of fair use, and that many of the republications it targets are not infringements at all. Instead, Righthaven was going to continue its campaign terrorizing people into making payments to it, and if they wanted to raise fair use as a defense, it would cost them dearly – as it has cost Mr. Hoehn. This cost should be shifted to Righthaven, as provided for by the Copyright Act. [Green]

Those wishing to assist Denise Nichols to receover her attorneys' fees can send help to: