Ordinary people and even the elderly, the deceased and young children have been taken to court over various copyright issues however when groups falsely assert copyright over works in the public domain public private parties cannot bring civil action to these misusers for whatever damages they may have caused. I’ve seen examples of falsely asserted copyright ownership during some of my high school English classes where we studied some of the various works of Shakespeare, whose work has been in the public domain for many years. Reprints of works in the public domain, remain, in the public domain. Same goes for any work, whether literature, compositions, artwork and so forth.
Found via the EFF, Professor Jason Mazzone at Brooklyn Law School wrote something on this topic. You can read more about it here.
Most importantly I find:
Congress should amend the Copyright Act to allow private parties to bring civil causes of action for false copyright claims. Courts should extend the availability of the copyright misuse defense to prevent copyright owners from enforcing an otherwise valid copyright if they have engaged in past copyfraud. In addition, Congress should further protect the public domain by creating a national registry listing public domain works and a symbol to designate those works. Failing a congressional response, there may exist remedies under state law and through the efforts of private parties to achieve these ends.