While federal copyright law is fairly specific, state variations make nationwide advice difficult to provide. However, you can decrease your liability by understanding the law and informing customers of the consequences of copyright infringement. While the law was written before the ready available of computers, computer-generated work is also covered. Impact of computers on copyright protection Computers have given anyone with the right skills and software the ability to copy and modify text and photographic images. As a result, it is becoming more and more difficult to determine whether an item is an original work that might be copyrighted.
Some state laws provide even greater fines.
Innocent infringement Copyright law does provide some protection to intermediaries such as printers. If a printer relies on representations by a customer that a work is not protected by copyright and where no copyright notice was on the original work, the printer can claim that infringement was innocent. Further, innocence is subjective if a reasonable person should have suspected that the work was copyrighted. While it cannot protect your company 100 percent, requiring customers to affirm either that the material to be printing is in the public domain, that the copyright is owned by the customer, or that the customer has received the copyright owner s permission to print the work can help establish proof of innocence. Often, just the requirement to affirm no copyright violation exists alerts customers to their responsibility with respect to copyright.