The “Crime” of Copyright Infringement

Copyright infringement is usually a civil matter, not a criminal one. This means it is not the responsibility of the government to find cases of copyright infringement or locate copyright infringers (those are two jobs performed by Web Defense Systems for our clients). This also means that copyright infringers are not subject to jail time (though there are exceptions to that principle, such as intentional torts). Instead, the owner of a copyright would sue the infringer, and should the owner prove copyright infringement has occurred, the copyright owner could be awarded damages for financial loss, perhaps attorney’s fees, and perhaps statutory damages. Such civil lawsuits for copyright infringement are very common in courts throughout much of the world.