Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Florida

Hi,

My husband and i decided to build a website by ourselves because we didnt have the money to pay a professional. Neither of us was aware of the copyright laws and we took and image that was on the internet and put it on our website. We kind of abandoned the website but left it on the internet , it was an idea we had for an export business that never worked out, we started it because my husband's salary was cut down so we were looking for other things to do to be able to pay bills. We didnt gain anything by using it or in the businnes in general. The other day my husband got a letter saying we had been using a copyrighted image and that we had to pay $1950 dollars for it since it have been up a year and the company charges unauthorized users thr price x2 or x3. I wrote the company which is Canada, explaining what happened , explaining our economical situation now which is very bad, and asking for another way or amount to settle this problem and of course I erased all the images from thr website. They responded that the would lower the price to $950 but it is still an absurd amount which we cant come up with. What can we do? Let them sue us? Ask for a payment plan? Please help! Im in the middle of my US citizenship and Indont want to have any trouble here. We did apologize and I know its no excuse not knowing much about the internet laws.


Asked on 11/19/13, 6:16 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Spoliansky Attorney Michael Spoliansky

You may want to try a wait and see approach to see if they do pursue any legal action for your alleged violations. I would not just give them money because they claim you are in violation. Ultimately, they are going to have to prove any violations in the court of law in order to get a judgment against you. It is on them to prove it. Do not admit fault. And in the rare event that they do end up suing you, then seek legal counsel.

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Answered on 11/19/13, 3:13 pm


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