Copyright Legal Action Update: June 29, 2026 – Monday

Copyright Legal Action Update
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June 29, 2026
Monday
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Hi there!
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I want to start by saying THANK YOU! to everyone who has contributed in support of our copyright filing fees. Thanks to the following people we have raised enough to cover copyright filings for 11 reports, and I personally covered copyright filings for 9 additional reports out of my consulting income (for a total of 20 individual copyright filings completed so far!)
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Thank you to…
Kevin
Susie
Terry
Ann
Joann
Nora
Dana
Andrea
Susan
Tracy
Hope
& Vicky!
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While I am going to clarify the following with our copyright attorneys this week, it is my understanding that for each copyright we file (each $65.00 filing fee for recently published works), to prevent theft of intellectual property the laws have set a potential recovery of statutory damages in the range of $750 to $150,000 per incident (a range which depends on several factors including if the courts determine the acts of copyright infringement are “willful” or not). This is only true if the copyright is filed within three months of the initial publication (which is why we are focusing on filing copyrights for recently published and newly published reports).
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This means that we might receive $35,000 to $70,000 in damages (which would recover a significant portion of our costs for this year’s work for the work that was stolen / used without our permission) – but we might possibly alternately receive awarded damages of as much as $840,000 or even – seemingly unlikely – $4,200,000.00 [four million two hundred thousand dollars!]
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Whatever the award of damages ends up being (if collectable, which is always THE big question) any damages awarded could help us create a fund to support our testing and reporting (& ongoing copyright filings) for years into the future (a possibility which could make it so we no longer need to fundraise – no longer need to ask for the community’s support to help cover the costs of testing and reporting of specific products).
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Given we just got a new bill from our legal team on Friday for a total of $25,741.00 in legal fees, the fact that there is a provision that also covers legal fees when Statutory Damages are awarded is lovely (and also something we are looking forward to).
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Here’s an article that discusses copyright law and related damages in detail: http://stimmel-law.com/articles/statutory-damages-copyright-infringement/
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Here’s another:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/412
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Of course none of this is a “slam dunk” – so fundamentally we must think of this new cost simply as an investment in the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC, an investment that will prevent this from happening again (prevent others — especially those unethically using AI — from stealing, profiting off of, and misrepresenting the intellectual property funded and generated by all of you – the Lead Safe Mama community).
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My youngest child Charlie is ever the realist, reminding me that one should never “hope” to be made whole with the outcome of legal actions (the only ones who usually do well with legal actions are the lawyers!) In spite of Charlie’s practical and reasonable perspective (“out of the mouths of babes…”) I still do like to hold out hope that some restitution may be possible — that bad actors should not be able to get away with heavily profiting off of the collaborative work undertaken by the entire Lead Safe Mama online community [especially given these particular bad actors are misrepresenting quite a lot of Lead Safe Mama, LLC’s work in their framing and presentation of the test results for products we have tested and reported on] – without compensating us for – at a minimum – the costs of the work we have undertaken].
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While we have a total of 49 copyright reports we do need to file in support of this particular legal case (for this first phase), plus 6 more new ones (for a grand total of 55 as of today), there are 28 that are the most urgent (in terms of the potential for recovery of Statutory Damages), so we have just eight more to file to complete that part of what we need to do in support of this case, and would truly appreciate your continued help with that if you are able to help with a one-time gift. Eight times $65.00 is equal to $520.00 — so we have just $520.00 left to raise.
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If you are able to help with a one-time gift or loan, here are the ways you can send those funds*:
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Venmo: @LeadSafeMama
PayPal: Testing@LeadSafeMama.com
Zelle (fee free!): Testing@LeadSafeMama.com
GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/eb06ecc26
Patreon (to bump up your membership by $1.00 or $2.00 a month):
https://www.patreon.com/leadsafemama/membership
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That said – as we have promised, with each community-funded copyright we file with the feds – that action is making it possible for us to publish a new (otherwise not-fully-funded) lab report. We’ve published two of these so far (thanks to your gifted funds), and have nine more to go given the funds contributed to date. The team will continue to work on those as priority this week – stand by for four new reports (hopefully four more will be published later today and another five will be published tomorrow).
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Thanks again – for everything.
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We share this level of detail about the issues we are facing as an organization (as well as our hopes for resolution) in order to be fully transparent (as always).
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I apologize that the legal battles may seem to be a distraction from the work we do, but I am learning that some of these actions are truly integral to our work if Lead Safe Mama, LLC wants to stay afloat (especially given the prevalence of AI and the fact that it has landed in the hands of many irresponsible and unethical human beings).
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Tamara Elise Rubin
& The Lead Safe Mama Team
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*Reminder: Lead Safe Mama, LLC is not a 501(c)3 nonprofit, so contributions are not tax-deductible gifts, however they are critically important in helping us move forward with our work. If you are sending funds as a loan, please email Tamara@LeadSafeMama.com and let us know this so we can stay in touch and repay you as soon as we have the funds to do so. Thank you!