Legal Advice pertaining to copyright infringement.?

I am in need of legal advice to a matter pertaining to copyright infringement.





I am a small business owner who runs a web and graphic design business. Recently I created a DVD


cover for a person where my logo brand appeared on the front and the back of the cover.


It has just come to my knowledge that these persons have removed my logo off of the front of the dvd


cover without my permission. The DVD is being sold nation wide so they are making profit off of it.





So my questions is, by these persons removing my logo identity off of the front of the


cover, does this constitute copyright infringement? Do I have a just cause to take legal action?Legal Advice pertaining to copyright infringement.?
First of all, if you need legal advice, you must seek the advice of an attorney. While I can impart some general information, nothing I say constitutes legal advice. Remember that your attorney has a legal duty as to your interests; strangers on the Internet do not.





As to your question, removing a logo, in and of itself, has nothing to do with copyright infringement. For example, I can scrape off the Toyota logo off a car and sell it. Copyright infringement is essentially the appropriation of copyrighted material without permission. Now if your DVD is being copied and sold without your permission, then that might constitute copyright infringement.





A big fact that is missing here (and one reason why you need to see an attorney) is the contract between you and your client. The written contract is going to spell out the rights your client has to the DVD you created for them. To the extent that the contract does not explicitly set out those rights or a written contract does not exist, then you may have to rely on other factors including state contract law.