Content writer sued for Plagiarism

[freelancer]

I am a content writer and have been accused of plagiarism by the person who commissioned me to write for their site. I have taken references from many sites and not knowingly copied anything verbatim to my knowledge but have been accused so. I offered to rewrite and even compensated my client for the amount they asked me to(small amount, we content writers do not get paid very much)

My client is still threatening to sue me for what I did and says that they have proof of my plagiarism. I am still not sure if I did as much plagiarism if at all.

I have not made any big money on the content to be sued in my opinion. We are talking as less as US 8 for 800 word articles.

Am I in real trouble?

[AFFA]

I wish to inform you that you cannot be accused of plagiarism. In this regard, plagiarism is when a person's writing resembles some other person's work or thought previously created. If you used the work commercially on a Website, it may result in Copyright violation if sued by the person whose work has been copied. However, when you have referred the content from different Websites and created a new work then generally what you have created will be a new creation and cannot be classified as plagiarism. You may inform the Website owner that you have created a new work and your work may have drawn from while researching the content of many Websites but otherwise it is a creation of yours and a new piece of work which cannot be classified as plagiarism. You may inform the Website owner that plagiarism has not been defined in any law and hence he may not file a lawsuit against you for plagiarism. However, If you have copied and reproduced the work of others from their Websites then that other Website may make you liable for Copyright violation.

AFF

[freelancer]

Thank you for explaining that to me....AFFA..cheers

[wilsim]

Well, if you are not sure whether you had plagiarized or not, try submitting your write-up on the high quality plagiarism check like plagtracker.com that would provide you a detailed report whether some of your lines are copied from elsewhere or you have provided 100% unique content to your client. Anyway, if you have already amended the content, it means that your client is making a fuss merely to earn a good amount in the form of compensation.