As a part-time photographer, I take copyright infringement very seriously. A client came in to my print shop to test that.
Client: Can you make a copy of this picture?
Me: Unfortunately no. I am not allowed.
Client: What do you mean?
Me: This image is the photographer’s intellectual property. It is illegal for me to make a copy of his work without his permission.
Client: So you don’t have the equipment? You can’t do it? You have all these big machines, surely you can do it.
Me: I can do it, I’m just not allowed to. In theory, I can make a copy. In practice, it is illegal to copy a photographer’s work.
Client: But I’ve had this done somewhere else before.
Me: Then they were breaking the law. I’m sorry, I just can’t help you. I can lose my job, get fined, or go to jail. It’s the law.
Client: I don’t understand. If we close the door, and I promise not to tell anybody, then it’s okay…
Me: So if we close the door, and I murder my colleague, but you don’t tell anybody, is that okay?
He left.
My ex-boss still does this stuff. When I refused to do it or be a part of it…he’d get someone else to do it and just smirk at me when I’d come in the next day and it was done. I suppose some day Karma will get him but it too often doesn’t.