Bit O’Moxie: What Danielle said!!!
It's a very strong post about standing in your own shoes and living your ethics, regardless of what a client wants you to do.
I'd add, though, that if a client says she has permission to use another person's intellectual property, yet you have reason to believe she doesn't (even if that's just a gut feeling strong enough to make you want to refuse to do the work), that's probably a relationship you want out of, and quick.
Why? Because it indicates that you don't trust the client's word. And if you don't trust the client's word, there are bigger relationship issues at play than whether the client can use someone else's intellectual property. No trust = no partnership. And if partnership is important to you in your Virtual Assistance practice, then there really can be no path forward without trust.
One thing you can do, though, to make things easier on yourself, is get to know/understand copyright law. If you know what's plagiarism and why, vs. what's fair use, vs. what you can do with material in the public domain, vs. what you can do with material covered by various Creative Commons licenses, you can both help your client understand these issues, and navigate difficult waters for yourself with greater ease. Wikipedia has a fair primer on copyright topics, regardless of the fact that they're calling for better sited references. More on fair use is available in another article.
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