Andrew Flusche, Fredericksburg Lawyer

Have you ever used a copyrighted work without a license? Perhaps you posted an image on your blog or pirated music.

Scarily, many businesses do similar things, thinking that it’s not a real threat to their business. I’ve heard people say “What’s the worst that will happen? We’ll be asked to stop.” Not true. The worst that can happen is you’ll be liable for damages, profits, attorneys’ fees, and costs.

Damages and profits

The default remedy for copyright infringement is damages and profits. This means you could have to pay the actual damage that your infringement costs the copyright owner. AND you could have to pay to the copyright owner any profits that you made by doing the infringement.

That alone could be a huge payment, if you have done substantial copyright infringement. But it can be worse.

Statutory damages

The owners of registered copyrights get an extra bit of ammo against infringers. They can opt to get statutory damages against you. This ranges from $750 to $30,000 for garden-variety infringement.

But if the court finds that you willfuly infringed upon a registered copyright, it can raise the damages up to $150,000. I would argue that simply disregarding someone’s copyright is willful infringement.

Attorney’s fees and costs

The court also has discretion to award attorney’s fees and costs in a copyright infringement case. This means that you could end up paying for the copyright owner’s attorney, just because you ignored his copyright.

Go ahead and violate someone’s copyright. What’s the worst that can happen? Big lawsuit, that’s what!

Photo by Stephen Downes

Setting up a home office takes a bit of planning. You can just setup a desk in a spare bedroom, but you still need to think about finances. And there are taxes. The key here is to separate business from home. But how?

The home office deduction is a subject for another post. The focus here is just specific expenses and supplies.

One great example of commingling supplies is printing. You need to print for home use, and you need to print for business use. How do you deduct the business portion of your printing costs?

Use a separate printer. It’s really that simple. Get a cheap printer (or find a spare one around the house), and dedicate it for business printing. Now you can buy ink for that printer and easily deduct it from business income. The same goes for paper. If you print a lot, this simple step could provide a decent expense deduction at tax time.

Label things. I actually put “business” or “work” labels on things that are dedicated for business use. It keeps supplies clear for my wife and I, and it should help if I ever get audited. The IRS might not believe that one box of envelopes is for business, but hopefully they will if the boxes are clearly marked “business” and “personal.”

Keep ‘em separated. Better yet, keep your business things physically separated from your personal things. Maybe you could put them in a separate cabinet or closet. That will make it even more clear what the supplies are actually used for.

Photo by Paladin27