On Wed, 14 May 1997, John Noble <jnoble[_at_]dgs.dgsys.com> wrote:
>
> In other words, it's infringement, but unless the student wants to
> sucker-punch the professor by registering her work now, and waiting
> for him to put in the coursepack next year, there's really not much
> to be done about it. Even if she registers the work, the statutory
> damages on these facts is going to be peanuts (see 504(c)(2)).
> Besides, she should be honored, not annoyed.
I agree that this is not a case where filing suit makes much sense (although you did leave out the possibility of injunction), but that doesn't mean that there aren't other courses of action available to the student. Many have been mentioned by others on the list, the most obvious being to talk to the professor.
However, as to John's last point, speaking as a student who once declined such an honor, and speaking as a human being who likes to be asked, I can see being both honored and annoyed. I can also see annoyance winning out. It is the student's work, and it should ultimately be her decision whether it gets broadcast to a larger audience.
On a facetious note, as to 504(c)(2), that is the section dealing with willful damages, meaning the highest statutory upper limit possible. Again from my student perspective, 100,000 seems like a lot of peanuts to me. :)
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