What should one do in this situation? Copyright issue!

[waniya96]

Hi, an old buyer who has previously ordered from me multiple times messaged me after months saying that they received an email for copyright issues for the work I did for them. I don’t understand as it is the first time happening to me. I do research for the topic but never copy paste anyone’s work. Specifically for this order, the buyer asked for many changes and also changed many things themselves per their requirement. When everything was finalized, I also checked for plagiarism as well as the buyer and it was 0% What should I do in such a situation. I need help as I am really panicking right now. Thank you

[kometbeats]

Don’t panic, ask for specific details, no one gets contacted for just “copyright issues”, from what you’ve written I’m guessing you have a writing gig, ask them to find out who is accusing them of copyright, what part of the work they’re claiming is copyrighted and find out where the work was published too. It seems sketch that someone suddenly has issues months afterwards with no details, unless you’ve left it out.

[imagination7413]

Yikes.
As long as the work was, indeed, original with proper citations, I would suspect someone is copying you and claiming to be the ‘original’.

Follow the advice @kometbeats has given.

[waniya96]

Don’t panic, ask for specific details, no one gets contacted for just “copyright issues”, from what you’ve written I’m guessing you have a writing gig, ask them to find out who is accusing them of copyright, what part of the work they’re claiming is copyrighted and find out where the work was published too. It seems sketch that someone suddenly has issues months afterwards with no details, unless you’ve left it out.

I have a quiz gig. I develop questions for the topic given to me. The buyer sent me their own website to take help from as well as asked me to research other links. The area of the topic is small which is why there were limited information on the internet as well. I developed questions and no questions were there in any website in first place. Secondly we did so many revisions, changed so many wordings of each question until the buyer was satisfied. The plagiarism report i submitted to them (which i still have says 0%) I have replied them and reminded of all the changes we did as well as the report i submitted.

This was there message “I just go an email on a cease and desist on the quizzes is you developed for me as copyright issues. Is there any information you can share with me to support original content development?”

[waniya96]

Yikes.

As long as the work was, indeed, original with proper citations, I would suspect someone is copying you and claiming to be the ‘original’.

Follow the advice @kometbeats has given.

Yes i properly even cited and included the references i used to form the quiz and after that we did multiple changes to the work. So i dont understand how it can be copyrighted at the first place. The area/field is small but the work is different. I just want to confirm that when the plagiarism is 0% detected, it means that there is no way that someone can claim the work right?

[kometbeats]

I have a quiz gig. I develop questions for the topic given to me. The buyer sent me their own website to take help from as well as asked me to research other links. The area of the topic is small which is why there were limited information on the internet as well. I developed questions and no questions were there in any website in first place. Secondly we did so many revisions, changed so many wordings of each question until the buyer was satisfied. The plagiarism report i submitted to them (which i still have says 0%) I have replied them and reminded of all the changes we did as well as the report i submitted.

This was there message “I just go an email on a cease and desist on the quizzes is you developed for me as copyright issues. Is there any information you can share with me to support original content development?”

Is there any information you can share with me to support original content development?

I don’t know how your gig works or… well I didn’t know that was a thing altogether but, if you have the original files where you worked you could provide that, you say you ran it through plagiarism software so provide the results, cite your sources, etc.

But again, it seems like this buyer hasn’t actually provided you with any information? From the quote you’ve given it seems like all they received was an e-mail from a random person. Now, the only thing that comes to mind, was the quiz in question made about a company or a product? because not you, but the buyer could be infringing on a copyright there, and if the quiz sheds it in a light that the copyright owner doesn’t approve of they can easily have it taken down.

Again, not enough details, don’t panic and ask more questions, you make quizzes for pete’s sake you should be great at this! lol

[waniya96]

Is there any information you can share with me to support original content development?

I don’t know how your gig works or… well I didn’t know that was a thing altogether but, if you have the original files where you worked you could provide that, you say you ran it through plagiarism software so provide the results, cite your sources, etc.

But again, it seems like this buyer hasn’t actually provided you with any information? From the quote you’ve given it seems like all they received was an e-mail from a random person. Now, the only thing that comes to mind, was the quiz in question made about a company or a product? because not you, but the buyer could be infringing on a copyright there, and if the quiz sheds it in a light that the copyright owner doesn’t approve of they can easily have it taken down.

Again, not enough details, don’t panic and ask more questions, you make quizzes for pete’s sake you should be great at this! lol

No, the quiz was about a general topic. It was related to leadership and management. There are a few of the terms that come under the topic which i had to use. Those terms were on the buyer’s own website as well as the links i used for research. It was not even a product or company. Later we even changed those terms to the suitable synonyms specifically as the buyer mentioned they don’t want any issue during the order. They used to send me notes that they have done xyz changes to the quiz document as it was more suitable and want me to do xyz changes. Yes, I have the plagiarism report. Just waiting for them to reply.

Haha, you are right. I shouldn’t be panicking but this is the first time this happened to me in 2 years of working with Fiverr. I just hope everything gets sorted and I don’t face any issue from fiverr as i know fiver really listen to sellers.

[waniya96]

So a quick update on what happened after. The buyer told me that another author/creator of the system sent her the notice. She was accusing her of copyright saying that she also has the assessment for the same model. Please remember that our order was from June and there was not a single assessment on the model at that time on the internet or at least the links we researched from. The buyer also acknowledged this fact by saying:

“The assessment would not have been published or publicly online, only blogs or write-ups about it. I have asked them for what parts are copyrighted.”

The topic/model the author is saying that they own is what the buyer specifically asked me to create the quiz on. (i shared the screenshot of the order requirements to the buyer as well that you specifically asked me to create the quiz on this topic) Also, that assessment is not even available online.

The buyer understood that the work was not plagiarized and understood when i mentioned that we did multiple revisions. (It seemed by her tone) She did so many changes herself and sent me notes every time saying that you should change Q1 (for example) to this statement “xyz” because it seems better and professional. Which means it was not just my delivery, it was 4-5 times modified and revised delivery by both of us and with a proper plagiarism report. She verified and revised everything.

I sent the buyer the report again and the links that she sent herself while placing the order. She thanked me for this help and told me that she will keep me updated. I also told her that this will prove our work is honest but still in case if there is a problem for a certain part of the quiz, we can modify it and change it if it can solve the problem for her.

Now its been two days. The question is, should I send a message to her? Ask for updates or not? Will the modifications in the quiz (if required) solve this issue? What would you guys suggest? I just want to end this horrible situation and be at peace as I really panic and can not focus on other important things.

Thank you for reading this note 🙂

[imagination7413]

Interesting update.

The question is, should I send a message to her? Ask for updates or not? Will the modifications in the quiz (if required) solve this issue? What would you guys suggest? I just want to end this horrible situation and be at peace as I really panic and can not focus on other important things.

Short answer is: There is no need nor reason for you to panic. You’ve proven you did the job according to their specifications. Honestly, I must commend you for having kept your records straight and being able to provide proof even this long after the order was complete, so good job! Rather, great job!

I don’t really see any point to contact the buyer at this point either. This kind of thing can take days to weeks to be resolved, if not longer. I get the worry, but it sounds like the buyer is the one who made a mistake, and while Fiverr is not the best at supporting the seller at times, this case seems pretty clear.

Take a deep breath, remember that you are only responsible for you.

“Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.”

If you still need some reassurance, reread the section in the ToS on “User Generated Content”.

[kometbeats]

So a quick update on what happened after. The buyer told me that another author/creator of the system sent her the notice. She was accusing her of copyright saying that she also has the assessment for the same model. Please remember that our order was from June and there was not a single assessment on the model at that time on the internet or at least the links we researched from. The buyer also acknowledged this fact by saying:

“The assessment would not have been published or publicly online, only blogs or write-ups about it. I have asked them for what parts are copyrighted.”

The topic/model the author is saying that they own is what the buyer specifically asked me to create the quiz on. (i shared the screenshot of the order requirements to the buyer as well that you specifically asked me to create the quiz on this topic) Also, that assessment is not even available online.

The buyer understood that the work was not plagiarized and understood when i mentioned that we did multiple revisions. (It seemed by her tone) She did so many changes herself and sent me notes every time saying that you should change Q1 (for example) to this statement “xyz” because it seems better and professional. Which means it was not just my delivery, it was 4-5 times modified and revised delivery by both of us and with a proper plagiarism report. She verified and revised everything.

I sent the buyer the report again and the links that she sent herself while placing the order. She thanked me for this help and told me that she will keep me updated. I also told her that this will prove our work is honest but still in case if there is a problem for a certain part of the quiz, we can modify it and change it if it can solve the problem for her.

Now its been two days. The question is, should I send a message to her? Ask for updates or not? Will the modifications in the quiz (if required) solve this issue? What would you guys suggest? I just want to end this horrible situation and be at peace as I really panic and can not focus on other important things.

Thank you for reading this note 🙂

Ask for updates or not?

I had a customer a week or two back that had a similar issue when the distributor told him the music he had purchased from me infringed on copyright, it was all original music so that’s pretty much close to impossible. I tried my best to provide some proof that it was all original work, the buyer seemed content and decided to release with another distributor, I asked for updates and he got back to me saying he was awaiting a response from the new distributor but was happy to hear from me.

My point is, if you’re genuinely interested, not panicked, and believe your customer would be happy to hear from you, go for it. I’m guessing some may say this could count as spam but personally, if I were in the buyers position I’d love for the seller to reach out and show genuine interest for the situation.

Of course, I have to say @imagination7413 makes a good point when they say these things can take weeks to resolve.

[waniya96]

Interesting update.

The question is, should I send a message to her? Ask for updates or not? Will the modifications in the quiz (if required) solve this issue? What would you guys suggest? I just want to end this horrible situation and be at peace as I really panic and can not focus on other important things.

Short answer is: There is no need nor reason for you to panic. You’ve proven you did the job according to their specifications. Honestly, I must commend you for having kept your records straight and being able to provide proof even this long after the order was complete, so good job! Rather, great job!

I don’t really see any point to contact the buyer at this point either. This kind of thing can take days to weeks to be resolved, if not longer. I get the worry, but it sounds like the buyer is the one who made a mistake, and while Fiverr is not the best at supporting the seller at times, this case seems pretty clear.

Take a deep breath, remember that you are only responsible for you.

“Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.”

If you still need some reassurance, reread the section in the ToS on “User Generated Content”.

Yes, I have a folder on my working laptop where everything is available related to all the orders I have done since the last 2 years. I made it just in case and I’m really glad that I did. Also thankfully all the chats, orders, files and dates are available in the order details on Fiverr as well.

Buyer is actually a nice person as they contacted me, asked me for the data and thanked me after. This makes me think that if the issue is not solved, they will contact me and we will make modifications (as i offered). I just wish that they solve this issue by themselves and let me know that everything is alright now. Haha.

P.S I’m really relieved after seeing that you think my case is clear and i can not be blamed in this situation. Thank you so much!

[waniya96]

Ask for updates or not?

I had a customer a week or two back that had a similar issue when the distributor told him the music he had purchased from me infringed on copyright, it was all original music so that’s pretty much close to impossible. I tried my best to provide some proof that it was all original work, the buyer seemed content and decided to release with another distributor, I asked for updates and he got back to me saying he was awaiting a response from the new distributor but was happy to hear from me.

My point is, if you’re genuinely interested, not panicked, and believe your customer would be happy to hear from you, go for it. I’m guessing some may say this could count as spam but personally, if I were in the buyers position I’d love for the seller to reach out and show genuine interest for the situation.

Of course, I have to say @imagination7413 makes a good point when they say these things can take weeks to resolve.

I’m really glad that your issue was solved. I just wish mine get solved as well so that i can post a happy update over here. I think i should not contact the buyer as they are usually inactive for many days even at the time when we were working together. It’s better to wait and just hope for the happy news. Thank you for your reply 🙂