There had never been a question about the ownership of the copyrights on the materials supplied by the customer. But it only takes once. On the most recent job, part of the material was copyrighted by someone other than the customer, and the printer was sued for copyright infringement. It has become an expensive mistake for the printer. Copyright laws exist at the federal and state level.
State laws vary greatly.
The innocent infringer provision was intended to protect those who unknowingly reproduce copyrighted work. And the use of more and more digital files is increasing printers' legal exposure since it is much more difficult to determine ownership. PIA is pushing for a new law that would implement a reasonable innocent infringer defense for printers. Printers should not have to be the cop on the beat, enforcing the law for copyright owners. Nor should they end up paying copyright owners for careless or intentional infringement actions taken by their customers.