Q: If you pay someone a lot of money for writing, and one of the docs is completely plagiarized, what are your options?
I paid someone $500 up front with another $750 due, for training materials. One of the documents was completely plagiarized from something else on the web (a paid course). How do I go about this? I paid via paypal... Will paypal give me my money back.
A:
Well, there are likely several options.
First, try to work things out with the other side, and advise them that you believe the work product they provided appears plagiarized and you are concerned about your liability in using/selling the materials. See if they are willing to re-write the materials as original (non-plagiarized) works. For extra assurance, you might want to request a written indemnification from them should any copyright issue arise for the new materials, which would help lower your potential liability if those new materials are problematic. If you can work things out, great. If not, and you don't want to use the materials, consider rescinding the contract and not paying the remaining $750--provided that you have put the creator on notice of the issue, being clear that (1) they did not fulfill their part of the contract, and (2) you may now be exposed to copyright infringement if you used those materials.
A second option, as you point out, would be to resolve the dispute through PayPal. If you're unhappy with the work product, and want to recover your money on the basis that you may be exposed to copyright infringement were you to use them, Paypal may be able to recover the $500 you already paid, depending on Paypal's terms. It seems that you may not have received what you paid for, and therefore the other side may not have fulfilled their contractual obligations, depending on the deal you worked out with them, and hopefully that falls within PayPal's refund terms. In my personal experience, PayPal is pretty fair about mediating a dispute, and this second option is my recommendation to minimize your liability, and also recoup your funds.
Another option would be to use the materials, assuming you're happy with them, and demand indemnification from the creator for any copyright infringement issues. While it may look like the work product is plagiarized, it may not be infringing, and you may be able to use it without risking a lawsuit. However, there are far too many unknowns for this option, it does not adequately reduce your risk of being sued (or worse), and I would NOT recommend this approach.
Good luck!
Griffin Klema
https://klemalaw.com
griffin@klemalaw.com
1 user found this answer helpful
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