[WEB4LIB] RE: Article - "Post-Tasini: Pity the Librarians"

[JENNIFER A. HEISE]

>NOTE: this does NOT mean that I
> don't think they should get paid.  They should.  However, if you're
> not going to get the money anyway, why go after it? It seems much like
> suing someone who crashed into you, totalling your car and injuring
> you.  If the guy doesn't have any money and not much of a job,
> collecting anything beyond what his insurance company will pay is
> pretty meaningless.  The pittance you could eventually get from
> garnishing his wages won't begin to pay the legal fees.

However, it does set a precendent: that individuals as well as the big
corporations are entitled to payment for copyright. Before this suit,
the precendent was that the only ones who could enforce their copyright
rights were major corporations, who could gouge everyone including
(indirectly) the people who produced their material.

Lexis/Nexis, NYT, et al, are no longer allowed to make money off
something they refuse to pay for, but charge us high premiums for.

- j. heise