Copyright troll Righthaven has once again been hit with another big bill. The case, Righthaven v. Leland Wolf, targeted the It Makes Sense Blog for allegedly posting a photograph that appeared in Righthaven client the Denver Post without its permission. The court has found in favor of the defendant and has ordered Righthaven to pony up $32,147 in attorney's fees and $1,000 in costs.

The photo in question was of a TSA agent performing an "enhanced" pat-down, which was posted to the It Makes Sense Blog twice as part of commentary about government policies. (The same photo appeared in an Ars report, which led to a very short-lived lawsuit against the freelancer who wrote that story.) Righthaven had accused the site and its owner, Leland Wolf, of direct and vicarious copyright infringement, but as argued by the EFF in its amicus brief on the case, Righthaven did not actually have exclusive rights to the image and therefore lacked standing to sue.

This is a common problem for Righthaven, and the firm continues to get hit with fee awards over its strategy in an attempt to extract settlements from small-time infringement claims. Just last month, Righthaven was ordered to pay $119,488 in Nevada for exactly the same reason—not owning the copyrights for works it's suing over—and in August, the firm found itself on the wrong end of a $34,000 judgment after it tried to go after a forum poster who had copied and pasted the text of a news story.

The latest news from Colorado adds to the growing pile of money Righthaven owes—and apparently doesn't have. With the company on life support and its counsel, Shawn Mangano, being chided for his "lack of civility" during the most recent hearing, the future is bleak for Righthaven.