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Bloggers beware: copyright-troll newspaper chain moves into Iowa

November 30, 2010

A newspaper chain notorious for suing bloggers for copyright violations has set up shop in Iowa. Stephens Media, owner of newspapers in nine states, including the Las Vegas Review-Journal, has purchased the Ames Tribune and some other Iowa newspapers from the Omaha World-Herald Company. The Des Moines Register reports:

The purchase includes the Boone News-Republican, Dallas County News, Nevada Journal, Ames Advertiser, Ames About People & Advertiser, Tri-County Times and the Algona Upper Des Moines in Algona.

The chain teamed up with an outfit known as "Righthaven" to sue bloggers who excepted LVRJ articles. They dismissed with the usual preliminaries to copyright suits, like cease-and-desist letters, and went straight to court for "violations" as minor as using several paragraphs from an article in a blog post.

They have apparently backed off the sue-first approach after losing a ruling against a blogger who could afford to fight back. Even so, it would be wise to not excerpt from any Stephens Media articles, in case they change their mind; the lawyers would be just too costly. It would be safer still not to even link to any of them. You can download browser plug-ins to block their sites, just to help you to not accidentally provoke a lawsuit.

Tags: Clayton Cramer.trolls.