What happens if you get copyright infringement

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Often times in the heat of the moment clients will want to call the copyright holder or the copyright holder's lawyer to explain their side of the story. While clients often have the best of intentions when doing this Hey! They're people - they must make mistakes too , it could potentially give the opposing side additional information that they could use in a case against you.

On that call, if you were to in any way admit fault for the violation, they could use that information against you in a way that could dramatically increase the amount of damages that you or your company is liable. When you receive a copyright infringement notice, usually the copyright holder will simply ask you to "cease and desist" use of the copyright. Most terms of a cease and desist letter are usually reasonable.

For example, Getty Images has a policy of only seeking to be put in the position they would have been in had the image been properly obtained in short, they're only looking for the licensing fees that should have originally been paid to use the image for a particular period of time.

A jury in Western Washington state awarded a copyright holder over one million dollars in damages for the unauthorized use of 5 images. The key here is to not panic. The cost of a copyright holder engaging in litigation is extremely high think 6-figures , so the odds of someone wanting to take a copyright infringement suit to a jury is low.

This is because they don't want to take the risk of losing. However, you should still try and respond to the copyright infringement notice in a timely manner. There are a lot of factual questions you'll need to answer before you can determine a clear course of action.

You will need this information regardless of whether you choose to answer the letter yourself or if you decided to work with a lawyer. Even if the answer to these questions does not help your case, it is crucial that you work to obtain this information. Understanding your present circumstances is half the battle and also useful for your lawyer.

There are also a few legal things that could prevent a copyright holder from being able to enforce their rights. Keep in mind that these issues delve deeper into the actual law, and thus it's likely that a lawyer will be needed to answer some of them.