New Newspaper Survival Strategy: Sue Everybody

Can an army of copyright lawyers provide a viable business model for the news industry?

Las Vegas-based Righthaven has begun buying the copyrights to newspaper content–with the newspapers’ blessing–in order to sue blogs and websites that repost the content, reports Wired’s Threat Level blog. And, says Righthaven CEO Steve Gibson, he’s making money.

“We believe it’s the best solution out there,” Gibson told Wired. “Media companies’ assets are very much their copyrights. These companies need to understand and appreciate that those assets have value more than merely the present advertising revenues.”

Since the company’s formation in March, Righthaven has filed 80 federal lawsuits on behalf of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, his first client.