Cease and desist

Question

Help!  We just got a very scary "cease and desist" notice from a company claiming to own the copyrights to some videos that were posted on our web site and used internally.  They want $2,000 to "settle" a copyright claim, and they say we have 10 days to reply or they will sue!  This notice is sitting in my in-box like a ticking time bomb, please let me know what we should do. 

Answer

As the use of online tools for tracking use of copyright-protected content becomes more widespread, this is happening to schools, libraries, museums, and other cultural/educational institutions with greater frequency.