When visiting museums or viewing the content of social networks, various sites in order to search for information, there is always something that attracts attention, and hence the temptation arises to use the found material for your own needs - blogs, advertising or business.

But it is important not to forget that everything that we find on the Internet, museums and other various sources refers to the results of the creative activity of their author, is his intellectual property and is protected by copyright. According to Art. 1259 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, objects of copyright include works of science, literature and art (literary, dramatic, musical, choreographic and audiovisual works; works of painting, sculpture, graphics, design; works of architecture, urban planning and landscape art; photographic works, etc.).

Their illegal use can lead to big problems since the author retains copyright (non-alienable moral right) even if it is sold and the exclusive rights to it are transferred to the buyer.

Nowadays, we often encounter copyright violations, having often even accidentally encountered our photographs, videos, musical works with or without text, video sequences for musical works, various texts and posts on social networks, as well as design solutions for our website on other people’s websites or social networks.

It is important to remember that copyright arises at the moment of creation of the work and its protection does not require registration by any government organization. And the author, in order to notify the public about the exclusive right to his work, may place a copyright sign (the name or title of the copyright holder, the year of first publication of the work, as well as the symbol ©) on each of his works.

If necessary, the author can file a lawsuit, which, even before a decision is made, can block the use of all controversial materials. However, before filing a lawsuit, you must:

- notarize a copyright violation by drawing up a protocol for inspecting a web page with the involvement of a notary. You can also record the violation on video or print a screenshot from the violator’s website;

- you can establish the identity of the violator on his website, or through an official request (lawyer\judicial) to the domain registration authority, which will allow you to find out the data of the domain administrator, and in case of difficulties, you can contact the domain registrar through a lawyer, who is obliged to provide the data of its owner;

- if the directed claim against the violator does not have a retaliatory effect and the violations are not eliminated pre-trial, then the next step is to go to court, but through a lawyer who will help to correctly file a statement of claim in the district court (on behalf of an individual) or in the arbitration court, if on behalf of a company.

After the court makes a decision, the violator may be required not to use illegally acquired material and to compensate for losses or pay compensation for damage caused in the amount of 10,000 to 5,000,000 rubles.

In addition, the violator may bear administrative liability and may be required to pay a fine to the state from 5,000 to 10,000 rubles for an individual and from 50,000 to 200,000 rubles for organizations. In the most severe cases, criminal liability is provided for plagiarism.

In this case, the violator suffers not only financially, but also suffers reputational losses in the business environment.