The issue in the case was whether the New Republic made money off of the publication of the articles. They did. The final decision recognized that at the time of the legal rulings, the New Republic was bankrupt, therefore there was no money to pay for the 1 million in damages that was assessed by the court. So the final agreement between the parties to stop action was that the New Republic would not continue to publish full articles of copyrighted material and each of the defendents to pay $5,000 which was NOT described as damages, but a simple "liability".
I suspect that this was the standard fee required from the LA Times and the Washington Post for republication of articles by for profit pubication. Therefore a concrete form of damage. I see no evidence of whether the $5,000 was paid by each of the defendants.
The permanent injunction for the Free Republic site still stands against publishing whole articles.
The website is still there.
Sometimes a lawsuit results in only an injunction ordering the cease and desist, it is considered a "slap" suit intended rather than gaining restitution, but to put the other guy out of business or to break them financially. Judges and courts do not like them generally as they are very expensive to the public. They are considered vindictive. Attorneys do not like to represent vindictive clients.
Patricia
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