Interesting David v. Goliath story in the New Zealand news. I have not seen it anywhere else yet:

An Auckland man who defeated internet giant Amazon in a copyright battle, hopes his example will inspire others to challenge big corporations.

The United States Patents Office has ruled that Amazon does not have the exclusive rights to what is called one-click shopping – the technology that allows shoppers to buy goods with just a single click of a mouse.

Peter Calveley used internet archive sites to prove the one-click shopping idea was pionnered by a now defunct internet company called Digi Cash.

Calveley has said that he pursued the suit as a game, or in other words to make a point, but he financed it with donations. Suing Amazon for profit? His blog has more details:

Many thanks to everyone who helped out with the funding and promoting the blog.

Please don’t send any more money

(unless you want to contribute to my personal consumption ;-) ).

Should lawyers, or even laymen, solicit funds from the Internet to attack corporate interests? This is an interesting model I had not thought about. I wonder if it might someday alter the definition of “public defender”. Calveley reported some sources of support, but most are anonymous.