What are the responsabilities about cited text after original licensor confesses illegal license?
<p>A book is published containing cited text from an article licensed under some free license like CC-BY-SA. With all requirements of such license fulfilled. </p>

<p>Later on the "author" of the article confesses that it was not original work and did not in fact have the right to grant licenses for the article.</p>

<p>What are the responsabilities of the book's author and publisher?</p>

<p>Is it a copyright infringement to continue publishing it unmodified claiming that any damage is caused by the author of the article and not the book's author whom acted in good faith? </p>

<p>Otherwise, is it a copyright infringement to reject acting on such revelation until proof is provided about the illegality of the cited article? If the author choses to keep the cited text, is there any obligation to actively investigate the license status?</p>

<p>Note that there is no doubt that the identities of the article's author and the one claiming it was a false license are the same. There is doubt about the veracity of his words though since he must have lied at least once, when he falsely granted a license or when he falsely confessed.</p>

<p>The author of the book has no right to use the text from the article unless permisison has been granted by to holder of the copyright in that article. Since it was taken from a source now known to be infringing, and the original source is not known, it may not legitimately be used until the true author comes forward and grants permission, unless the use would fall under fair use (in the US) or some simialr fair dealing concept (in those countries where that applies).</p>

<p>Of course, the author of the book will suffer no legal penalty unless and until after the true author does come forward and files suit. But the book author could hardly claim 'innocent infringement". The book author is on notice that text has been used with no valid license or grant of permission. It is the book author's responsibility not to use other people's work unless it is in the public domain or permission has been granted in some way. </p>

<p>Also, a book publisher would be jointly liable in such a case, and might choose to withdraw the book from publication unless some suitable correction is made.  </p>

united-states copyright licensing