copyright software open-source-software
Am I at risk by storing or using software that violates copyright?
<p>Imagine the following scenario:</p>
<p>A software company copies code from some open source project and includes it in their own software without giving credit to the original authors, violating the open source license and copyright.</p>
<p>The software company then gives me the software and its source code under a proprietary license. If I am not aware of the copyright violation, am I at risk of legal consequences if I store the source code on my computer and use the software?</p>
<p>Suppose that at some point I become aware of the copyright violation. Am I at risk at this point?</p>

<h2>If you copy copyrighted material without permission or another exemption, you are at risk</h2>
<p>It doesn’t matter if you know the material is subject to copyright, it doesn’t matter if you think you have permission but don’t, it doesn’t even matter if you knowingly make the copy or if it is some background process you don’t know about. Copyright law is really simple: if you make an unlawful copy, you broke it.</p>
<p>If this seems unduly harsh, remember you are dealing with a law with its roots in the 18th century that was internationalised at the beginning of the 20th century. Making copies then was a hard, deliberate process - you couldn’t “accidentally” or “inadvertently” make a copy of a literary or artistic work. Now you can - the world has changed, the law hasn’t.</p>

<p>Since you mentioned open source software: If I give you some open source software in a way that makes it copyright infringement, then using the software is in principle copyright infringement. However, the copyright owner is likely more concerned with ensuring everyone’s right to use the open source software, so they are not going to sue you as long as you agree to the license terms.</p>
