Liability for Copyright Infringement

Familiar with the phrase: “I just took the image from Google”? Many still believe that everything on the internet is public domain. But that is not the case. Every photo, text, or design has an author, and the illegal use of someone else’s work is not just impolite—it can have very real consequences. And it’s not just about fines. In this article, we will break down all types of liability for copyright infringement: from social media bans to actual court cases.

Section 1. Digital and Reputational Consequences

Before a case reaches official letters from lawyers and court summons, the infringer faces consequences in the very environment where the theft occurred — the digital space. And these consequences can be extremely fast, painful, and financially tangible. Tech giants like Google and Meta (Facebook, Instagram) do not want to be held liable for others’ offenses, so they have created quite strict and effective tools to combat piracy. For the infringer, this means a real risk of losing traffic, audience, and, most importantly, the trust that is the foundation of any business or personal brand.

1.1. Content Removal and “Strikes”: How DMCA Complaints Work

Imagine a universal and very powerful tool, something like an “international complaint book” for the entire internet. This is the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act). Its global power lies in the fact that all major American companies are obligated to comply with it, which essentially covers the entire internet as we know it: Google, YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, as well as most hosting providers. If you, as an author, file a legally sound DMCA complaint, the platform is obligated to respond very quickly, otherwise, it risks being sued itself.

How it works in practice and why it is so painful for the infringer:

• Removal from Google Search: This is perhaps the most noticeable blow. You send a complaint to Google, and if it is deemed valid, the page of the infringing site containing your content is simply removed from search results. For a business, this is a catastrophe. A site that cannot be found on Google practically does not exist. It instantly loses 90% of potential clients and visitors. This is a direct hit to sales and brand awareness.
• “Strike” System on Platforms: Many services, the most famous being YouTube, use a warning or “strike” system. It works on the “three strikes” principle:
  1. First strike: The channel receives an official warning, and temporary restrictions may be imposed (e.g., a ban on uploading new videos for a week).
  2. Second strike: Sanctions become stricter, and the blocking period may be longer.
  3. Third strike: The channel is permanently deleted without the right to restoration. All videos, subscribers, and years of accumulated work disappear.

This is an extremely powerful tool that allows an author to quickly stop an infringement, and for the infringer, it is the first real signal that their actions have serious consequences.

1.2. Blocking and Bans on Social Media: Temporary or Permanent?

Every social network is essentially a private state with its own laws that you accept when you check the box in the user agreement. And the laws of each of them (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok) state clearly: stealing someone else’s content is strictly prohibited. The consequences for violating these rules can be fatal, especially for a business or blog that depends entirely on its account. This is not just an inconvenience; it is a direct threat to the existence of the business model.

What sanctions can be applied, from the lightest to the heaviest:

• Content removal: This is the lesser evil. After your substantiated complaint, moderators simply remove the infringing post. This is a warning shot.
• Temporary blocking and restrictions (“shadowban”): If violations are repeated, the social network may impose much more serious restrictions. This can be not only a direct ban on posting for a week but also a so-called “shadowban” — a sharp decrease in reach, causing posts to be seen by only a small fraction of followers. For a commercial account, this is equivalent to closing the store doors for a week.
• Permanent ban: This is a “digital death penalty.” For systematic or particularly brazen copyright infringements, an account can be blocked forever, without the right to appeal or restoration. Imagine an online store that has invested in its page for years, gathered 100,000 followers, and one day loses absolutely everything because of a few stolen photos. This is a complete collapse of the marketing strategy.

Visual platforms react particularly quickly and strictly to such complaints. We have detailed the specific liability on Instagram and how blocking on social media occurs in our separate article: “Stolen Photos on Instagram: A Guide to Removal and Compensation“.

1.3. Reputational Losses: How Content Theft Hits Audience Trust

This is perhaps the most underestimated, yet the deepest and longest-lasting consequence. You can delete a post, and theoretically, you can create a new account. But restoring a ruined reputation and lost trust is extremely difficult, and sometimes impossible. In an era where audience trust is a key business asset, a public accusation of plagiarism can be reputational suicide.

How does it work? The author whose content was stolen may not limit themselves to a quiet official complaint but may make the situation public, which is their full right. This can look like a chain reaction:

1. Public exposure: The author publishes a post or a series of stories on their profile with irrefutable evidence of the theft (e.g., “expectation vs. reality” screenshots or a screen recording).
2. Direct mention: In this publication, they tag the infringer’s profile (@username), making the conflict visible to their entire audience.
3. Community reaction: The author’s loyal followers, outraged by the injustice, begin to act: leaving angry comments under the infringer’s posts, reporting their profile, and messaging them in Direct. Sometimes other bloggers and influencers join in.

The result for the infringer can be catastrophic: mass unfollowing, a sharp drop in customer trust (“if they steal content, maybe they deceive with the product too?”), and partners refusing to cooperate. An expert reputation built over years can be destroyed in one day because of one carelessly stolen image.

Section 2. Legal Liability in Ukraine

If digital and reputational consequences did not work, or if the author is immediately set on a serious fight, the case moves to the legal plane. And here we are no longer talking about “strikes” or comments, but about official documents, fines, and court decisions. Ukrainian legislation provides for three main types of legal liability for copyright infringement. It is important to understand that they do not always exclude each other: an infringer can be simultaneously held, for example, to civil and administrative liability.

2.1. Civil Liability: Compensation for Damages

This is the most common and understandable type of liability for an author, as it is aimed at restoring their rights and financial interests. Simply put, civil liability is when an author forces an infringer through court to stop the theft and pay for it. The initiator here is the author themselves (or their representative), not the state.

What exactly can an author demand in a civil lawsuit:

• Cessation of infringement: This is a basic requirement. The court can officially prohibit the infringer from further using your content. For example, mandate the removal of a photo from a site, withdraw the entire batch of T-shirts with your print from sale, etc.
• Compensation for damages: If you can prove that you suffered financial losses, you have the right to compensation. This can be:
  • Direct damages: for example, the cost of a license that the infringer should have bought but did not. If you usually sell the right to commercial use of a photo for 5,000 UAH, you can demand exactly this amount.
  • Lost profits: money you could have earned if your rights had not been violated.

• Recovery of compensation: This is the most interesting and effective tool. Instead of proving the amount of damages for a long time, the law allows the author to demand compensation, the amount of which is determined by the court. This can be an amount from 10 to 50,000 minimum wages. This is a very powerful incentive for infringers to resolve issues peacefully.
• Compensation for moral damages: You can demand compensation for your mental suffering, stress, and time spent fighting for your rights.

In essence, a civil lawsuit is your main tool for obtaining financial satisfaction for stolen work.

2.2. Administrative Liability: Official Fines from the State

Unlike civil liability, administrative liability is punishment on behalf of the state. Here, the main goal is not compensation to the author, but punishing the infringer for non-compliance with the law and preventing such actions in the future. The money from the fine goes to the state budget, not to the author.

How it works:

1. Legal basis: This type of liability is regulated by Article 51-2 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses (KUpAP).
2. Essence of the violation: The article punishes for “illegal use of an object of intellectual property rights.” This is our content theft.
3. Punishment: Such a violation provides for a fine. The amount of the fine is from fifty to two hundred non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens (as of 2025, this is from 850 to 3,400 UAH) with the confiscation of illegally produced products.
4. Procedure: The case is considered by the court based on a protocol drawn up by authorized bodies, most often the police. That is, you as an author can file a report with the police about the fact of theft.

Although you will not receive money from this fine, holding the infringer administratively liable creates an official history of offenses for them and is an additional lever of pressure during negotiations on civil compensation.

2.3. Criminal Liability: When Infringement Becomes a Crime

This is the highest and strictest level of liability, which occurs when copyright infringement causes truly great damage and turns from an ordinary offense into a crime. Criminal liability is regulated by Article 176 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Criminal liability occurs only if illegal actions caused material damage in a “significant amount.” The law defines that a significant amount starts from an amount twenty or more times exceeding the non-taxable minimum income of citizens.

Imagine a large publishing house printing a run of your book without your permission and earning hundreds of thousands of hryvnias from it. Or an IT company building its commercial product by stealing a significant part of your program code, causing you to lose a large contract. This is no longer just “taking a picture,” this is large-scale piracy.

Sanctions here are much more serious than administrative fines. Depending on the severity of the crime, this can be:

• A significantly larger fine (up to three thousand non-taxable minimums).
• Correctional labor for up to two years.
• Imprisonment for up to six years.

Of course, only the most brazen and large-scale cases of infringement reach criminal liability. However, its very presence in the legislation serves as a powerful deterrent for potential pirates.

Section 3. What This Means in Practice: Real-Life Examples

Theoretical knowledge about types of liability is good, but it is much more useful to see how they work in real, albeit fictional, examples. After all, the situation of an SMM manager who “borrowed” a photo for a post is radically different from the story of a brand that launched an entire line of clothing with someone else’s design. Let’s look at a few typical scenarios.

3.1. SMM Manager Used a Photo Without Permission: What Are the Consequences?

Let’s imagine a situation. Maria is an SMM specialist managing the page of a small coffee shop “Aroma of Coffee.” For a morning post, she finds a beautiful photo of a latte cup on Pinterest and publishes it on the coffee shop’s Instagram with the caption: “Good morning! We are waiting for you.” The author of the photograph, professional food photographer Oleksiy, accidentally stumbles upon this post.

What consequences await the coffee shop?

1. Digital consequences (most likely scenario): Oleksiy, not wanting a scandal, files an official complaint with Instagram. Within a day, the post is removed, and the coffee shop’s profile receives its first “strike.” If Maria continues this practice, the account may be blocked.
2. Civil liability (if the author is persistent): Oleksiy writes to the coffee shop’s Direct. He explains that this is illegal use of content and offers to resolve the issue peacefully: pay the license fee for the photo, for example, 1,500 UAH. If the coffee shop refuses, he can make it public, which will lead to reputational losses for the establishment.
3. Administrative/criminal liability: In this case, it is practically excluded. The damage caused by one photo in a post is not significant enough to involve the police or open a criminal case.

For minor infringements, digital sanctions and pre-trial civil demands are most often applied.

3.2. Clothing Brand Printed an Illustrator’s Work on T-shirts

And now a more serious case. A young Ukrainian clothing brand “Street Style” found a stylish illustration by artist Olena on the internet and, without thinking twice, printed it on a batch of 500 T-shirts. The T-shirts are selling well. Olena’s friend buys such a T-shirt and shows it to her.

Here, the consequences for the brand will be much more large-scale:

• Civil liability (main tool): Olena contacts a lawyer. They send the brand an official pre-trial claim, where they demand:
  • Immediately stop sales and withdraw the entire batch of T-shirts from circulation.
  • Compensate for damages: either in the form of the cost of a commercial license for such a run (e.g., 30,000 UAH) or in the form of all profit received from the sale.
  • Pay for moral damages.
    If the brand refuses, Olena has every chance to win a copyright lawsuit.
• Administrative liability: Olena can file a report with the police. This can lead to a court hearing, a fine for the brand owners, and, most importantly, official confiscation of all remaining illegally produced products.
• Criminal liability: If the batch of T-shirts was large, and the brand’s profit from their sale reached a “significant amount” by law standards, the owners’ actions can be qualified as a criminal offense under Article 176 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

In cases of direct commercial use for profit, the infringer risks facing all three types of legal liability.

3.3. Important: Liability Only Applies to Illegal Use

Before running to court, it is important to remember that not every use of someone else’s content is illegal. There is a concept of “Fair Use,” which allows the use of fragments of other people’s works without the author’s permission for the purpose of criticism, commentary, news creation, or educational purposes.

For example, if a blogger made a video review criticizing the “Street Style” brand’s T-shirt, showing Olena’s illustration as an example of plagiarism, this would most likely be considered fair use. Liability arises when you take someone else’s work and use it for the same purpose for which the author created it, competing with them on their own field. To avoid unfounded claims and understand where this fine line lies, it is worth studying this issue in more detail. We have detailed these exceptions to the rules in the article: “Free Use of Works in Ukraine | What is Fair Use?“.

Conclusions

Summarizing everything said, one main conclusion can be drawn: ignorance of the law is no excuse. In an era when any content can be copied in a second, it is very easy to give in to the temptation to “just take” what is lying around. However, as we have seen, the consequences of such actions can be much more serious than they seem at first glance and go far beyond simply deleting a post. This can be a significant copyright fine, or a complete blocking of business accounts, or even a court case.

Therefore, the best strategy for both business and personal brand is to respect someone else’s work as you want yours to be respected. Create your own unique content, buy licenses, or use free stock photos. In the long run, this is always cheaper, safer, and much better for your reputation than any attempt to save on another author’s work.