trolls

[victor steinbok]

You know "patent trolls". Say hello to "copyright trolls"

http://www.twincities.com/entertainment/ci_17805654
> The independent film company sued Tensley for copyright infringement in a type of suit that has become so prevalent that Internet-rights advocacy groups have come up with a name for the plaintiffs: copyright trolls.
> ...
> An outfit named the US Copyright Group — actually the Washington law firm of Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver (DGW) — filed enough of the lawsuits against thousands of unnamed "John Does" that a Florida lawyer started selling self-help defense motions for $19.95 each so defendants could file them on their own.
> In an article last June, the technology news website Ars Technica described DGW's approach:
> "The model couldn't be simpler," the article said. "Find an indie filmmaker; convince the production company to let you sue individual 'John Does' for no charge; send out subpoenas to reveal each Doe's identity; demand that each person pay $1,500 to $2,500 to make the lawsuit go away; set up a website to accept checks and credit cards; split the revenue with the filmmaker."

I don't expect a general dictionary definition for "trolls" to appear
for some time, although "patent troll" may well be in the offing soon.
Dictionary.com and Wiki have entries. OED and most on-line
dictionaries (let alone printed ones) do not.

WordSpy (http://goo.gl/1LyWY ) and WWWords (http://goo.gl/HuSFV ) have
extended articles on "patent troll", although neither traces it beyond
2001 (Wiki suggests 1993). There is very little available on copyright
trolls.

The most effective copyright troll so far is Righthaven--a company
that buys up copyright on popular stories from newspapers, then drops
expensive suits on bloggers (including some political campaigns) who
dare to reproduce piece of those stories for their own audience. It
has become clear that Righthaven has little regard for legitimacy of
copying under the Fair Use doctrine. Righthaven has been in the news
because of a recent settlement they reached with Drudge.

This is a not unexpected development from DMCA, and problems with the
law had been pointed out long before this became a financial issue.
Unfortunately, these laws are often written by idiots (or, more
accurately, by lobbying groups).

VS-)

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