For the few people who still read the Las Vegas Review Journal (RJ), you may want to pause a little while and read this. It may answer some questions you have about the paper.
Have you noticed a change in the stories they publish? Less local reporting and what Las Vegas reporting that it does have, has a certain “fluff” to it? Have you noticed that a lot more of their stories that are of Vegas news has a “We tried to get answers from (source) but they have not returned our phone calls at press time” at the end??
For those who read it online or are from out of state, you may have noticed the same thing. Are you wondering why that is??
It seems ever since The RJ started to sue everyone that ever linked to their website, (including their sources for local news) people have started to stop talking to their journalists.
Imagine That!!
Their reporters are starting to have a difficult time getting answers to question and finding that the local people they used to be able to count on for information, have suddenly stopped returning phone calls. You sue the people you count on for information and wonder why they stopped returning your calls? So they are now relying more on syndicated Associated Press news articles than before.
The RJ is owned by Stephens Media LLC – who owns media outlets all across the United States. It seems that they grub-staked what some call a bottom-feeding lawyer and helped to create a new company called Righthaven LLC. Their only business is copyright infringement lawsuits by people who link to the RJ website.
Stephens Media has made it known that they will soon start feeding the trolls at Righthaven, other copyright stories from their other papers soon.
Now the exact relationship and profit splitting arrangement s between the two have not been made public yet. It’s just interesting to note that Stephens Media is Righthaven’s only client.
This means more lawsuits are coming against mom and pop websites – because they do “Unrepairable harm” to the RJ!
Seriously. That’s their defense. Like the fact that a North Dakota website talking about cats, fur balls and a fire at a Las Vegas animal sanctuary did “unrepairable harm” to the RJ by linking their blog to an article on the RJ website!
Current Total is over 100 lawsuits and climbing. See Las Vegas Sun for updates. Yes, The Las Vegas Sun encourages people to link to Their website! (with proper credit!)
Proper Disclosure:
In the new world of online media, people in my position are often times referred to as journalist or media people. So as a heterosexual journalist, I must say that I am all for copyright protection. But as a heterosexual journalist, I am also for fair warning and justification.
Like with our photos, if we find someone using them without proper credit, we ask for removal or for proper credit. Not just nail them with a lawsuit. And the offending party usually respects us for that.
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