That says absolutely nothing like what you’re claiming it says.
The question of whether something has been previously published makes absolutely no difference to a) whether someone else can publish it or not, and b) what penalties they face if they do.
Are you seriously claiming that, because Jonathan Franzen clearly intended The Corrections to be published, you can go out and publish it today without facing any penalty beyond returning your profits? Because believe me, that’s not what your link says at all.
ETA: I just realised that jtur88’s last post might imply that he read the link and now gets why his previous posts were wrong, in which case I take back my snarky tone.
Just to clarify aka tl;dr version.
The copyright gets paid based on damages irregardless of what the violator made. So let’s say “The Journeyman” tries to sell his stories for $10,000 to an interested firm but can’t because Sigene is giving it away for donations. LSS (long story short) Sigene would owe The Journeyman $10,000.
OR they can leave it up to the judge who can award between $750 and $30,000 based on what the judge considers fair. Minimum could drop to $200 if the defendant honestly believed it was not infringement* or as much as $150,000 if the violation was willful. Again this is not based on the violator’s profit except if I were judge that would set a minimum in terms of “what is fair”.
*I’m assuming (hoping) “if it is on the internet it is not a copyright violation” is not a defense".