Stephens Media, owner of the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, West Hawaii Today, and a slew of other newspapers, including the Las Vegas Review Journal, has been whacked by a federal judge in Nevada over a copyright lawsuit against Democratic Underground. The lawsuit claimed a post that excerpted a brief segment of a Review-Journal story violated the copyright, which had allegedly been assigned to Righthaven LLC. It is one of a series of lawsuits brought by Stephens Media and Righthaven against bloggers, including at least one blog in Hawaii.

According to the Electronic Freedom Foundation:

In a decision with likely wide-ranging impact, a judge in Las Vegas today dismissed as a sham an infringement case filed by copyright troll Righthaven LLC. The judge ruled that Righthaven did not have the legal authorization to bring a copyright lawsuit against the political forum Democratic Underground, because it had never owned the copyright in the first place. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Fenwick & West LLP, and Las Vegas attorney Chad Bowers are defending Democratic Underground.

“We are pleased that the Court saw through Righthaven’s sham assignment of the copyright and dismissed its improper claim,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. “Today’s decision shows that Righthaven’s copyright litigation business model is fatally flawed, and we expect the decision to have wide effect on the over 270 other cases Righthaven has brought.”

Although Righthaven had claimed in court documents to hold the copyright to the disputed quotes, it turned out that it merely had an agreement to pursue the lawsuits for a cut of any monetary judgements.

Does this mean Stephens’ attacks on bloggers will end? I would say it’s too soon to tell.

Not to make light of a bad situation, but…a friend was up early this morning and caught this breaking news headline at the Star-Advertiser online edition:

FBI says missing sisters likely upducted in Saipan

Volunteers and law enforcement personnel have canvassed jungles of Saipan and combed through dirt and trash in search of two young sisters, who authorities believe were most likely abducted while waiting for the school bus three weeks ago.

He commented:

Had not heard that word previously, but perhaps it refers to an alien abduction where one might be sucked up into a saucer?

Just FYI, the headline has now been corrected.

Speaking of corrections, FactCheck.org was put through its paces by this week’s GOP debate, where fake facts were flying quite freely, it seems.

And for your “it’s easier than ever to produce news” file comes this report that the BBC is developing an iPhone app to facilitate reporters filing audio and video reports from the field. It is apparently a more customized version of something like Luci Live, which transforms an iPhone into a broadcast studio.