In the tests the court used to decide fair use: the defendants' use was transformative because Righthaven is a litigation-driven business, the republication was to educate the defendants' audience, and it had no substitutive effects Ouch! It would be hard to fail that test unless you went out suing people for violating copyright trolls' copyrights. It's also worth noting that the defendant published all 33 paragraphs…
> It's also worth noting that the defendant published all 33 paragraphs of an article and that was alright because it was not easily distilled or edited. I find it hard to believe that a 33 paragraph article contained so little original expression that in order to copy the facts (which are not subject to copyright) one would need to copy the entire article verbatim.
Re: How Righthaven is performing a public good
#11I don't think "just the facts" is the test here, though that would be a different possible defense in a copyright infringement case.