We recently wrote about Righthaven CEO Steve Gibson's bizarre claim that a court order directed at him is inapplicable because he's just the CEO, and the company's own lawyers (who he blames everything on) won't return his calls. Now the EFF (who is representing Thomas DiBiase in the case) has filed a response in which they highlight how positively insane it is for Gibson to pretend that, as a CEO, he can avoid responding to court orders directed at a company.

The filing also attacks the ridiculous notion that Gibson did not "have notice" of the order against Righthaven, even though its lawyer, Shawn Mangano, had received notice. As the EFF notes, if the court accepts Gibson's bizarre claim, anyone in a lawsuit can "avoid" notice by simply having a lawyer who refuses to pass along the notices. That's clearly not how the law works. Furthermore, the EFF quotes another case about how a party in a lawsuit can't just turn against their own lawyers and blame them:

Mr. Gibson has no one to blame but himself for Mangano's inaction. Mr. Gibson "voluntarily chose this attorney as his representative in the action, and he cannot now avoid the consequences of the acts or omissions of this freely selected agent."...

I don't think I've ever seen a legal strategy executed quite as stupendously poorly as Righthaven's continued bungling of almost everything. What's especially stunning is going back to the very beginning and remembering just how cocky Gibson was about Righthaven as a brilliant business and legal idea.