Criminal

The US Government can prosecute copyright infringement where it demonstrates to a court that a person has

• Infringed a copyright
• Willfully
• Either for
  • Commercial or personal gain (where "personal gain" now means anything of value), or
  • during a 180-day period with a total value of more than $1,000. [NET Act]

[17 U.S.C. § 506]

Penalty:

• Where the value of the copies is $2,500 or more, not more 3 years imprisonment or a fine, or 6 years imprisonment if a second offense; and
• Where the value of the copies is more than $1,000, not more than 1 year imprisonment or a fine.
• Authorized punishment starts at one year imprisonment and goes up, including additional penalties for repeat offenders.

[18 U.S.C. § 2319]

Statutes of Limitations: Cases must be initiated within five years of the offending action. [17 U.S.C. § 507(a)]

Civil Remedy

Owners of copyrights can bring their own actions for infringement pursuant to 17 U.S.C. §§ 501-511. The copyright owner must establish "(1) that Plaintiff owned the copyrights, and (2) that Defendants copied Plaintiff's copyrighted work." [Futuredontics]

Registration: Prior to initiating an action in court, the owner must have registered the material in question with the Library of Congress Copyright Office. [411]

Remedies available to the court include an injunction (stop doing what you are doing), [17 U.S.C. § 502] [Streambox] impounding, destruction or other reasonable disposition of copies, [17 U.S.C. § 503] and damages (either actual or statutory). [17 U.S.C. § 504]

Statute of Limitations : Actions must be initiated within three years of the complained of act of infringement. [17 U.S.C. § 507(b)]

See also Remedies under DMCA; P2P Music; Subpoenas.

Law

• Section 411(a) of the Copyright Act
• 17 U.S.C. § 502.
• 17 U.S.C. § 503.
• 17 U.S.C. § 504.
• 17 U.S.C. § 507(a).
• 17 U.S.C. § 507(b).
• 18 U.S.C. § 2319.

Caselaw

• RealNetworks, Inc. v. Streambox, Inc., 2000 WL 127311, 2000 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1889 (W.D. Wash. Jan. 18, 2000) (granting preliminary injunction on defendant's traffic in Streambox VCR and similar products designed to allow downloading and storage of RealMedia files from RealServers; denying preliminary injunction on traffic in defendant's Ripper and similar products designed to convert RealMedia files into other formats on grounds that RealMedia file format not shown to constitute a technological measure preventing the creation of derivative works).
• Futuredontics v. Applied Anagramics, CV 97-6991 ABC (MANx) (CDCa Jan. 30, 1998).

News

• Feds Bust Massive Piracy Scheme, Internet news 10/14/2005
• Eight Charges with Copyright Infringement for Distributing the Latest Star Wars Movie that was Stolen from Post-Production Firm Prior to Release, DOJ 9/30/2005