Lawyer Carl Christian Müller
With a warning letter due to copyright infringement, you are accused of using copyrighted material such as films, photos, texts or maps without being authorized to do so. The warning letter is a request from the rights holder to stop the unlawful use and not to repeat it in the future.
Copyright infringement occurs when you have used copyrighted material without having previously acquired the rights of use. Copyright is an exclusive right. This means that no one other than the copyright holder may use the copyrighted material unless they have consented to the use.
A cease-and-desist declaration is a written promise to cease the copyright infringement committed and not to repeat it in the future. According to case law, the risk of repetition can only be eliminated by submitting a declaration to cease and desist with penalty clause. This means that if the cease-and-desist declaration is not signed, the claim for injunctive relief is not fulfilled. There is then a risk that the rights holder will go to court.
As a rule, the warning letter is accompanied by a pre-formulated cease-and-desist declaration with a penalty clause. However, there are different ways in which a cease-and-desist declaration can be formulated. We will be happy to advise you on this as part of our free initial consultation
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Two cost items are claimed with the warning letter: the attorney's fees and the license damages. In the case of consumer warnings (these are mainly warnings due to file sharing), the lawyer's fees are capped. Here, the license damage is the cost item that makes the warning expensive. As a rule, between EUR 600 and EUR 1,000 are claimed in a warning letter for file sharing. Photo warnings can be considerably more expensive. Mid-four-figure amounts are not uncommon here.
But: There is room for improvement in all cases. As a rule, the amounts demanded with the warning letter can be negotiated and the damage reduced.
Rechtsanwalt Carl Christian Müller, LL.M. Fachanwalt für Urheber- und Medienrecht
Submit your copyright warning via our contact form. Please describe the background to your case. We will usually get back to you on the day of the request.
We take a look at the warning letter. One of our lawyers specializing in cease-and-desist letters will then contact you and discuss the prospects of success of your case with you. The consultation is free of charge
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Immediately after the initial consultation, you will receive our order documents, which we will use to confirm what we have discussed in writing. You can then consider at your leisure whether you want to continue with us.
We start work and take the necessary steps to defend you successfully against the warning letter. We will keep you informed transparently at all times about the progress of the matter until it is finally resolved.
After receiving a warning letter for copyright infringement, the most important thing is to remain calm. Above all, do not sign anything too hastily or call the other party too quickly. Even if the accusation of copyright infringement is true on the merits, you have a number of defense options to keep the damage to a minimum.
First of all, we offer you the option of a free initial consultation. Benefit from our experience from more than 10,000 copyright warnings. We know the tricks and, above all, the interests of the warning letters and know how to keep the damage to a minimum.
No matter whether the warning seems justified at first glance or not: the ostrich tactic of "burying your head in the sand" or sitting it out will not help in any case. The rights holder has decided to pursue the case with a lawyer and has instructed him to enforce his interests. If you do not respond, the lawyer will at best send you another out-of-court letter and - if you still do not respond - pursue the matter in court.
Depending on the facts of the case, the rights holder may even enforce the injunctive relief by means of an interim injunction. However, rights holders are usually primarily concerned with enforcing claims for damages. In this respect too, however, legal action must be expected, even if not immediately. In any case, legal proceedings make the matter even more expensive - often completely unnecessarily.
The heyday of mass warning letters is over. Nevertheless, there are still some warning letters or law firms that continue to send out standardized mass warnings (see list on the right). There are essentially two categories here, namely warnings for file sharing and warnings for the unauthorized use of photographs.
Give us a call!
Warning notice due to file sharing
Warning notice for photo use
It depends on the lawyer. In any case, with us it costs nothing to ask how much the representation will cost: The initial consultation is free of charge.
We make sure that our work is economically viable for you. This means that we make sure that the matter does not become even more expensive for you than it already is. This is why we generally represent our clients in cases of copyright infringement warnings at a fair flat fee (column on the right). This applies in particular to consumers. We will discuss the costs in the initial consultation. If you don't understand something, ask. It is important to us that you feel you are in good hands with us.
A flat fee is a fixed fee. If we work for a flat fee, we receive a one-off amount for the work agreed in the mandate (e.g. defense against the warning letter). It does not matter how long the case takes, how many letters we send or how often you call us. All of this is covered by this lump sum. The amount of the lump sum depends on the individual case. We will discuss this with you during the initial consultation. Immediately after the initial consultation, you will receive an order form from us in which the flat rate is stated. This way, you can be sure that it will not be more expensive than discussed.
In principle, we defend warnings for copyright infringements and do not issue warnings ourselves. We take a critical view of the practice of mass warnings as well as the relevant supreme court rulings because they have led to an erosion of consumer acceptance of copyright law.
Only in individual cases do we also take action against infringements. We consider the warning letter to be an effective and cost-effective means of settling disputes out of court. We primarily represent museums, photographers and freelancers.
Submit your copyright warning via our contact form. Please feel free to describe the background to your case. We will usually get back to you on the day of the request.
We take a look at the warning letter. One of our specialist lawyers will then contact you and discuss the prospects of success of your case with you. The consultation is free of charge
.
Immediately after the initial consultation, you will receive our order documents, with which we confirm our procedure and the flat-rate fee we have discussed in writing.
We will start work and take the necessary steps to successfully defend you against the warning letter. We will keep you transparently informed at all times about the progress of the matter up to the final deletion.
Lawyer and specialist lawyer for copyright and media law Carl Christian Müller has been admitted to the bar since 2002 and has extensive experience in the defense of copyright warnings. He represents clients both in cases of so-called mass warnings, such as those that still exist in the area of file sharing, as well as in more complex cases of individual warnings.
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