Copyright protection firm Righthaven has expanded its lawsuits to include individual Web commenters, the Las Vegas Sun  reported.

StinkyJournalism has covered Righthaven’s suits, specifically on behalf of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Denver Post’s content extensively over the past months.  See our stories on Righthaven here.

According to the Sun’s report, Righthaven has now filed at least 203 lawsuits since March. Two of the most recent suits’ targets — James Higgins and Wayne Hoehn — reportedly published part of Las Vegas Review-Journal stories on message boards.  In Higgins’ case, he credited the columnist – John L. Smith but not the newspaper, and in Hoehn’s case, he credited both the newspaper and its columnist Sherman Frederick.

The lawsuits call for $150,000 in damages, which is Righthaven’s standard, according to the Sun.