+1 for contacting the author/designer. Chances are they’ll be flattered and grant you a special license (if necessary) or give you a straight answer on compensation requirements.
I’ll add that it may be preferable to have your customer carry this out (and provide you with whatever agreement is settled on) to keep you and your company out of the mix as much as possible should things get ugly.
I would stick with the standard of having them agree that they have permissions/rights to the file that they provide to you. I’m also up for contacting the author, but why should you even know where the file came from. Unless they are just giving you a link to the thingiverse page, in which case I would say don’t go there. Make them provide the file to you and it’s their job to ensure they have the legal right to use it for the purpose they are intending.
I think I interpreted the earlier posts wrong. I agree with Jason and Ryan, the customer bears the burden of obtaining permission/license. My comments are probably relevant to the person that has the burden of obtaining the permission/license. However, I feel obligated to point out that in offering a service which produces an infringing article could place the service provider in the position of contributing to the infringement. Ignorance or turning a blind eye is typically not a legal defense or excuse. From my perspective, the IPR issues are really not that different than those that face photocopy services.
@Bill_Glenn_wpglenn what is ‘IP’?
Michael: IP stands for Intellectual property I think…
Thanks!
Yes - that is correct. Sorry for the delay in responding. I had to work today!