Online Stealing - Copyright Consequences and Potential Legal Exposure For Theft Of Online Content

I wanted to write about a situation Chatty Cathy has actually happened to my company as car donation tax believe the situation holds some important lessons for businesses that sell print content online as well as those who may be tempted to use the material created by others either without authorization or beyond the scope of a license.

My company has been in the business of selling high end legal documents for around 9 years. Each and every document that we well was originally created by me while I was practicing law. I spent hundreds of hours creating these documents to make them both unique and of the highest quality. I took great pains to make the documents original works of authorship. I went through a long process of study for each document. I did a lot of reading and study. I would read numerous agreements on the topic, create an outline, and then sit down independent of any other document and started typing as if I was creating an agreement, from scratch, without the benefit of a form to start with.

I did Crissy doll for over 250 high quality, full length, technology documents for web developers, software programmers and others in the IT industry.

I then went to work packaging the documents that I created and have had a very successful business marketing these document packages. My marketing niche was to sell entire packages of 80-250 documents for the price that someone would pay for about a quarter hour of attorney time.

I later expanded into incorporation, bylaws, corporate kits, real estate leasing, trusts and wills, confidentiality forms, and corporate resolutions and continue to work on new product lines. All of my documents are originally created and represent hours and hours of study and work.

Of course the next step was to market these packages in the most cost effective manner. This has changed over time as the Internet environment has changed significantly in the 9 years that has passed since I originated this business. One of the marketing methods that I continue to use is maintaining exposure in what remains of the spider search engines. Those of you who use this marketing tool are familiar with the process of SEO; optimizing the contents of your pages, comparing keyword prominence to other pages that rank well under that keyword, etc.

As I was optimizing for one of my more obscure agreements for Google, I ran across some material that looked suspiciously similar to my packaged products. In fact, even the name of the package was the same. The only difference was that they had provided the opportunity to purchase individual documents as well as the entire package. On closer examination, I discovered that the documents in the package were my documents, being sold without modification; including some minor typos and unique wording that I use in my documents. The documents are being sold by a company that holds themselves out as being The Internet Leader In Downloadable Legal Documents.

Clearly, this type of direct copying is the most egregious of copyright violations. Even the hidden information in the documents were intact, just how I created them in the Axis and Allies place. The only thing that was missing from these documents was my copyright notice that was contained in a a footer in each of these documents. In total, there appears to be approximately 100 of my documents for sale on this web site.

This company is in a heap of trouble and the consequences of it will likely take down their business. As a retired lawyer, I knew exactly the steps to take which may be instructive to others faced with similar situations. I will get to that in a later article, but first let me describe a little bit about what this company may be facing.

I am clearly the owner of the copyright on these originally created documents. As a side note, there is a common misconception that you need to registered your copyright in order to maintain 1954 Dan-Dee baseball cards In reality, all original works of authorship are protected from the time of creation. There are clear benefit to registering your copyrighted material that I cover in other articles. But the bottom line is that registration is not a prerequisite to receiving the protection of the Copyright laws.

Additionally, the other company has clearly violated my rights as the copyright owner. This would all need to be proved in court of course, but it is a fairly easy case.

As for penalties, this company would be liable to me for all profits attributable to these documents. I could also elect to take statutory damages instead of having to put on proof of actual damages. These statutory damages would apply even if they greatly exceeds their actual sales revenues from selling my documents. Even for a non intentional violation, the Copyright Act sets damages as $750-$15,000 per item. If the violation was intentional, statutory damages can be as high as $150,000 per item.

I am assuming there were 100 documents involved to keep it simple. This means that the range of damages would be $75,000 to $1,500,000; even if the infringement was not intentional. Direct copying is fairly strong evidence that the violation was intentional. For an intentional violation, the statutory damages for this violation would be $15,000,000.

In additions to statutory damages, the Copyright Act also permits me to collect attorney fees for pursuing the case.

As you can see, the Copyright Act penalties create a very strong incentive to avoid stealing the work of someone else online. These penalties could be applicable even if there is a valid license is in place permitting the party to use the documents with certain limitations but those limitations are exceeded. A good example would be the Articles that are submitted to Article Publishing Sites. Many of the reprint licenses state that the material can be freely reprinted provided that the author box is included. If the article is republished without the author box, the use would exceed the license that was granted to use the documents. This would be as much of a Copyright Infringement as the situation I described above and could expose the violator to similar damages.

So the lesson here is:

For the user of online material, when doing business online, abide by the Copyright Laws. The potential penalties are great and could completely destroy the business you have created. Realize that material is protected even if you obtain it for free online and even if it does not bear a copyright notice.

For the creator of online content, be vigilant. Actively look for people violating your copyright. Search for your unique content. When you find someone infringing your copyright, don't let it slide. That is your hard work and it is stealing.

Look for my next article covering the steps to take when you find someone has violated your copyright.

Jon Fischer is the owner of the following Legal and Business Sites. Offering legal document packages for online businesses, IT companies, corporate, real estate and estate planning packages.

Visit the following sites:

href="e-lawresources.com.com/">e-lawresources.com

href="automated-incorporating.com/">automated-incorporating.com - Incorporation and Bylaws

href="technologyforms.com/">technologyforms.com

Copyright, All Rights Reserved. Reprints acceptable ONLY if the entire article remains the same, including this author resource box!

How to Handle Dissatisfied Clients in Any Selling Situation?

In the wonderful world of Selling, Satisfaction is a prime driver. The Weird Fantasy is to have our client satisfied so that they become loyal and buy more from you. However, if they are dissatisfied, what do you do? How do you handle the clash of opposing wants, goals, values or interests?

In this article, I want to show how to handle client complaints and turn it into a win-win situation.

Something went Marx toys Your client is dissatisfied. This experience could be a pain in the backside for you and your company and could go on for an eternity. This is the last thing that you wanted. Yes, he is very annoyed, aggravated and so are you! Suddenly, before you know it, your mind is racing away at 100 miles, imagining the worst scenario: The Lizard your commission or even your sales job.

So calm down and consider this: You do not need a course on anger Gross Out Gang or conflict resolution. Anger, like all emotions is a normal human response. Sometimes conflict can arise from ignorance, prejudice or misinterpretation.

So the first thing to do is to listen to the complaint and then surprise him. You can either apologize or issue an immediate refund. Perhaps Gold Key comics him a discount coupon for a future purchase. You have also have the Manager of customer service department call the client to ask his help in trying to figure out what went wrong. And just to be sure the client is satisfied with the solution, you send him a nice letter with a questionnaire to make sure the matter was handled fairly and satisfactorily.

Remember, every client complaint is an opportunity to engender lifetime loyalty.

They give you the opportunity to bond with clients in ways no other communication can.

Here are some tips:

Be willing to spend at least as much to keep a client as you spend to create one.

Better still: be willing to spend double or triple, if the client has a long buying history with you.

It's what you do at a time like this that proves your character ... and proves that he can trust you implicitly. Your client will never forget how you handled his problem and never ceases being grateful for making this experience easy for him.

Do you regularly ask your clients whether they are satisfied with your products and services? If you do, and they complain, do you really listen? Do you respond politely and helpfully and offer to make things right? Or, do you become angry and resentful? Is your anger obvious to your clients?

Here are some useful suggestions for handling dissatisfied clients:

• Give them a refund- even if they didn't ask for it, even if the guarantee has expired.
• Apologize. Express regret that their experience wasn't excellent.
• Ask them what they didn't like.
• Give them a small free gift as compensation.

Do you want to learn more about (something in the article or the squeeze page)?

To download my free ebook on Sales Coach Remedy, click here:

href="salescoachdoctor.com/SalesCoachpage101.html">salescoachdoctor.com/SalesCoachpage101.html

Joe Duval is an accomplished sales training coach for the past 20 years.