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Take accusations of copyright infringement seriously

by | Sep 5, 2019 | White Collar Crimes |

Many people don’t realize that you can’t just copy things that are already written. It is easy to do this, even inadvertently, so it is necessary to be very careful when you are doing any type of writing. This includes slogans for marketing campaigns and similar business matters.

If you don’t have the permission of the original author of the work, you might face copyright infringement accusations. These can be challenging because the author does have specific rights that you can’t violate.

Some authors don’t mind people using their quotes, but some do have limitations to the usage. Many don’t want anyone to use them for profit. This means that you can’t take their phrase and use it to market your company.

In order to avoid facing accusations of copyright infringement, you should always ask for written permission if you are going to use a phrase that someone else wrote. Not only can this prevent you from legal troubles, but it can also help protect your reputation.

One of the first things that will happen if you are accused of copyright infringement is that you are going to receive a letter. The demand letter is going to tell you that you are violating a copyright and that you need to stop using the material in question.

You then need to find out if the claim is valid. If it is, you should remove the material, so you aren’t in violation. That is enough to put the matter to rest in many cases. You should verify that the material you used isn’t part of the public domain, which means that it is available for anyone to use.

If the copyright infringement case does proceed into a legal matter, you need to ensure you understand your rights. These cases involving intellectual property can be complicated.