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.