Copyright law generally does not excuse "innocent infringers" and is pretty strict in this sense (here is a link to a discussion of copyright that sums this up

Copyright law generally does not excuse "innocent infringers" and is pretty strict in this sense (here is a link to a discussion of copyright that sums this up in the first two paragraphs: http://www.ladas.com/NII/CopyrightInfringement.html http://www.ladas.com/NII/CopyrightInfringement.html). This sort of liability can extend to average people as well, as for example in this news report of a 2-lawyer firm that hired an SEO guy as a contractor for a $1K job and wound up with a $60K+ liability (and certainly must have spent many thousands more in attorneys' fees) as a result of that contractor's having lifted some copyrighted promotional materials wholesale from another law firm's website and used that infringing material as its deliverable for the project (http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202432820979&src=EMC-Email&et=editorial&bu=Law.com&pt=LAWCOM%20Newswire&cn=NW_20090806&kw=9th%20Circuit%20Finds%20for%20PI%20Firm%20Over%20Theft%20of%20Firms%20Web%20Site%20Content http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202432820979&src=...).