Devious scheme defrauds them in violation of copyright (10)
I believe the answer is:
conspiracy
'devious scheme' is the definition.
'conspiracy' can be an answer for 'scheme' (conspiracy is a kind of scheme). I'm unsure of the 'devious' bit.
'defrauds them in violation of copyright' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'defrauds' could be 'cons' ('con' can be a synonym of 'defraud') and 'cons' is found in the answer.
'copyright' could be 'c' (as in the copyright symbol, a C in a circle) and 'c' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for conspiracy that I've seen before include "Plot" , "intrigue" , "scheme" , "This is intriguing" , "that involves plotting" .)