When someone uses a protected copyright without the author’s authorization, it is considered to be a copyright infringement, whether it is a book, a song, a photo, etc.
In order to use someone else’s works you must have the author’s authorization. It might happen that you have had the authorization in the past, but it is no longer available, since it had a specific period of time.
If you are contacted by the author or an heir, in view of any accusation, you will first need to consider where you are standing in order to know how to move forward. In the event that the use of the work is actually infringement, you will need to cease automatically to avoid legal stages.
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