Here's a thought: Let it go. If your inspiration is the innovation at the heart of useful, life-changing technology, count yourself fortunate to have had such a meaningful impact.
Or dig in and fight like hell.
Roll up your sleeves and head to the nearest university's law library, bring some reading glasses and a tablet, dig into the germaine presiding legal code, and craft your offensive with the same fire in your belly that Erin Brokovich did when she went after the gas company.
As a matter of fact, if it's true and you find that your legal footing is indeed sound, it's a gold mine of content. Blog, book, movie. Think about it: Equifax. You couldn't pick a better black hat for a David v Goliath/ Good v Evil story. Really. The potential for intrigue and creative spin is endless. Creative non-fiction, as a genre, is one of the most lucrative in the history of story telling, publishing, theater, and film. And this story is one with an increasingly transcendent resonance at the dawn of the so-called 'contract/freelance/entrepreneur economy'. So many of us have been burned in similar ways, and it happens with such frequency, that even if a tenth of us similarly afflicted folks opted in, bought the book, and downloaded the movie, it'd likely dwarf the 13 million-dollar screwing you got.
If you go down that road, I'd ping Brokovich's consulting firm. Polish the canonball a bit, but really, get someone of that stature with that sort of direct 'man v. machine/in the belly of the beast' expertise. It could be bigger than you imagine.
Either way, thanks for the hack story. It took guts to share it, knowing that you'd likely get flamed to ashes with such a simple cheesecloth tale. Please let us know what you end up doing.
Or dig in and fight like hell.
Roll up your sleeves and head to the nearest university's law library, bring some reading glasses and a tablet, dig into the germaine presiding legal code, and craft your offensive with the same fire in your belly that Erin Brokovich did when she went after the gas company.
As a matter of fact, if it's true and you find that your legal footing is indeed sound, it's a gold mine of content. Blog, book, movie. Think about it: Equifax. You couldn't pick a better black hat for a David v Goliath/ Good v Evil story. Really. The potential for intrigue and creative spin is endless. Creative non-fiction, as a genre, is one of the most lucrative in the history of story telling, publishing, theater, and film. And this story is one with an increasingly transcendent resonance at the dawn of the so-called 'contract/freelance/entrepreneur economy'. So many of us have been burned in similar ways, and it happens with such frequency, that even if a tenth of us similarly afflicted folks opted in, bought the book, and downloaded the movie, it'd likely dwarf the 13 million-dollar screwing you got.
If you go down that road, I'd ping Brokovich's consulting firm. Polish the canonball a bit, but really, get someone of that stature with that sort of direct 'man v. machine/in the belly of the beast' expertise. It could be bigger than you imagine.
http://www.brockovich.com/
Either way, thanks for the hack story. It took guts to share it, knowing that you'd likely get flamed to ashes with such a simple cheesecloth tale. Please let us know what you end up doing.
Good luck with that.