Kahle v. AshcroftMcKinney vs Amazon
originally submitted by Laurence O. McKinney:
This was the lawsuit I successfully took against a typical orphan-book profiteer who was advertising thousands of books on Amazon - and then simply copying library copies.
My father re-copyrighted his work at the age of 76, in 1968, and I've found people all over stealing his stuff.
I'm betting that the good Mr. Lessig is not likely to post this - because I'm coming from the other side. When they steal your copyright stuff, they just figure you don't have the clout to go after them. I had the sense and we won $5,000 - and let that be a lesson to those who would not respond. There's a need for a better system YES but not open-season on copyrights. Poor folks will suffer.
Stifled uses
Laurence O. McKinney:
Jeremiah Bornemann:
You don't understand the concept here, it is not opening all copyrights, its freeing the copyrights for the companies that don't exist anymore. Games that are still copyrighted that have been out of print for years and the companies that have made the game have also been gone for years, this is where the problem is.
There is a whole world of things that are still copyrighted and hence you can't use without a license. Poor folks aren't going to suffer, this suit isn't going after you or your fathers works, its the works that have no one to look over them and still want to be used.