On Tue, 1 Feb 1994, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
Try to sue for damages when your work is available for free to millions of people. The judge will laugh in your face, copyright or no. Damages are, after all, related to lost revenue
Lost revenue can be measured in more than one way. Besides estimated loss of sales, it can be measured in profit earned by the defendant. If an author published a story in a magazine once, and never intends to publish it again, this does not give you the right to sell his story because he wasn't going to be making money on it anywhay.
anyone who wants to see something for free in one medium, you will have a fucking hard time to keep them from examining it in another equivalent medium.
Profanity aside, that's not an entirely logical arguemnt. There are plenty of free publications in the US that contain copyrighted work. Publishing in a "free medium" does not strip your rights. -ck