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