I am contracted by a small firm to build web sites. They had me put copyrighted content into the website for what I thought was temporarily. But now its been there for awhile (indexed by search engines) and we're still accumulating and flagrantly using content from other websites without permission in writing. I'm concerned. Its this type of violation similar to driving 5 mph over the speed limit? Or is this a more serious violation of law. Me as the contracted web developer probably has equal responsibility with those that are having me put the content there. Please tell me how serious this is and how I can reconcile the situation. I'm prepared to quit this job if my employer does not concede and presses the issue.
definitely can be more serious than speeding! If you were contracted the you need to write a letter and send it certified mail stating that the information that you were told to use for temporary set up is copyrighted and that you must have it removed immediately. This would be a step in helping your case in court. That way they can't say they didn't know and put it on you. But I would seek legal coucil if they don't remove it quickly.
That's a tough thing you got yourself into. The reality is that you are only in as much trouble as the companies you are stealing content from have money. If they can afford to sue you, you can be in pretty big trouble financially. If they cannot, you probably won't be in much trouble at all. In either case, it's not a good idea to do. For ethical reasons if nothing else. I find this type of thing eventually bites you in the ass in other ways over the long term. And of course you will be the one your employer will blame in court. You can pretty much bet on that 100%. I can just hear it now. "We don't know much about web design. He told us that the content was okay and put it up on his own. We know nothing about it I swear." Good luck.
Seems like you are actually the one going against the law, and now knowingly. If someone tells you to kill someone and you do it, would you be in violation of the law or them? (hint: you'd both go to jail). I'd quit immediately. and let them know you are quitting because you thought the content was temporary but you don't want to be part of copyright infringement. Brandon
Sounds like you're being used so later your boss can fob it off as "I didn't know my eployee did these scandalous things, he has been fired now (see how serious we take this!)". Raise the issue and say you refuse to do it again and want to correct past mistakes. If they force you to commit crime I'm pretty sure you can sue your boss. If they sack you because of it, again you can probably successfully sue them. Just try and get in writing (e-mail) when they ask yuo to do these things. Also, when you raise the issue, do so in writing so you have evidence. Print off the emails so they can't wipe it. Make sure it doesn't continue, it's theft and bad for you, your boss, the people you steal from and for the company as whole.
Ask for more money? I think the first thing you need to do is make sure you can't be blamed for anything. Make sure you have evidence that they set you the task, maybe send them an email saying 'Are you sure... blah blah' and make sure they reply to that email with their response so you have more evidence. As far as the seriousness of a crime goes, it really depends on what scale. How many cases of copyright infringement end up in court? How many cases end up in friendly letter for cease and desist? How many don't even get noticed? People on this forum tend to think of the worst cases for this kind of thing, AfterHim.com, do you really put this on the same scale as killing someone? As I said, it really depends on the scale of the crime, I used to steal willy nilly when I was a 13 year old and I had no idea I couldn't copy and paste text from one website to another - it's not the kind of thing I would've known, I definitely profited from it (all $10 or so probably) and I wasn't sued, I didn't even get so much as a email. If you feel it's serious then I pretty much agree with T0PS3O, whatever happens, just make sure you've got yourself covered.
Hi, If I am right , the domain on which this copyright content is not yours. So when somebody wants to contact someone for legal reasons , it won't be you . Secondly even if it comes down to "website developers" , then it is yur boss who will be questioned. He can put the blame on you . Protect yourself from this .Quitting won't help. You can send an email to him or a print letter saying that , "It has just come to my notice that the content 'you asked me' to put on the blaa blaa website from xxx is copyrighted and it would be illegal to continue the use of that content . I suggest you take necessarry steps to get the content removed. I was unaware of the fact that the content is copyrighted by a third party and is going to be a permament gesture when it was placed on this website." Get the letter done by a lawyer . They know how to keep you clean. Some news site bugged google last year for something like this. 1.7 million if I remember correctly. "Keep Yourself Clean". Regards
You knew this was wrong to begin with, yet you justified it by attaching a time frame to it which will surly come back to bite you! The amount you made is miniscule to the amount you’ll pay in court costs when they discover this (and they will). As long as your employer doesn’t have any correspondence from you stating this, he’s in the clear (somewhat). Once he has been made aware of the situation, the burden shifts from you to him. The big question is, how do you legally notify him without losing him as an employer? Answer, you can’t. This one is lost, so don’t worry about it and just start taking measures to protect yourself should something happen. Besides, you don’t want to work for someone like this anyway.
I was going to remove all the copyrighted content from the websites and then send an email to my boss stating what I've done and why. This will be after I permantly remove all copyrighted content in the project files. I will "force" him to reply to the email so I have proof that he received the email. If he doesn't reply to the email, I will quit. That way, no legitimate trace of the copyrighted content will be available except a few things on his portable computer. What do you think of my plan? BTW, he is not my "employer" in the since that I would be an "employee". Supposedly, I'm a self-employed "contracter". But I know this can be a fine line as well.
Getting rid of it is good. Most companies won't bother to sue if you removed the content. It's not worth the trouble. As for there being no record, you forgot about Google. If the site is indexed, it will be cached too. And then there is always the wayback machine.
Google will update it's cache shortly and you can remove your website from the wayback machine http://www.archive.org/about/faqs.php#2
the real questions comes to what the content is, and if it is actaully copyrighted, or just a pretend web copyright. its really hard to justify anythign in the courts along these lines. i run a website for a jeweler and we have people using our images all the time for various reasons. we have contacted several lawers and have bascialy been told that theres nothign we can do unless the images are copyrighted legaly. also that in most cases you would never gain enough of a return from the lawsuit to jusitfy pursueing it in the first place. the web is a very dirty and reused place
Why don't you let tell your employer that one of the owners of one of the websites you copied off is a personal friend and is considering suing your employer. Then use a bit of the ole extortion/blackmail to get some money out of him before leaving?....
Hmm, I never knew this. So, if I have several pages of text I wrote with the generic 'Copyright, all rights reserved' thing at the bottom, is there anything I can do if someone steals my content and profits from it?
You don't even need the copyright notice as far as I'm aware. If you have the money, you can sue them. Stealing isn't allowed. Problem is, they'll just jigg the sentences around and get away with it.
Blitz, Of course there is a huge difference, i wasn't comparing the severity, i was comparing the guilty parties in the offense.
That should be sufficient in most cases. As far as I know only the US requires you to copyright something (file copyright registration or whatever it is called) before suing something for copyright infringement (a case that will go to court). However I don't think it would be necessary for filing DMCA complaints to search engines and hosts, nor would it be required for sending cease-and-desist letters. My recollection might be flawed though... I'll check if I can find where I read that...
For what it is worth, I wanted to tell you that you are posting replies on threads that are about 1 year old. I doubt these people still have this issue pending or are checking back on threads over 300+ days old.