What Is the Penalty for Copyright Infringement?

Injunctions

Injunctions refer to court orders that will restrain a party found guilty of copyright infringement from continuing to use the copied materials. This has the effect of preventing the guilty party from continuing to profit from the copyright infringement. Such orders are effective throughout the entirety of the United States. Violation of the injunction opens the guilty party to additional contempt of court penalties.

Destruction of Copyrighted Material

The court may order that any copies, recording, molds, film negatives and any other articles that have been produced in violation of the owner’s copyright rights may be seized and destroyed. This prevents illegal copies from being sold or used at future times. The court may also provide additional instructions to ensure that proprietary information on any of the infringed material be protected. This means that during the destruction process of the illegal copies, restrictions are in place to prevent copyrighted information from being revealed to anyone not allowed to see it.

Statutory and Actual Damages and Profits

There are two primary types of damages involved in copyright infringement cases: statutory damages and actual damages and profits. The infringed upon party is eligible to collect actual damages done by then regarding the infringement and the profits made by the infringer. The infringed upon party presents the infringers gross profits and the infringer may then attempt to have deductible expenses taken off that amount before final damages are awarded.

Financial Penalties

Statutory damages may be taken on the part of the infringed upon party instead of actual damages with a maximum of $30,000 awarded. In other cases, statutory damages up to $150,000 may be awarded to the infringed upon party if the infringing party knowingly violated the copyright restrictions; this constitutes criminal copyright infringement. In certain other instances, the court may impose additional fines equal to two years of licensing fees upon the party that infringed on the copyrighted material.

Court Costs and Attorney Fees

Court costs and attorney fees on the part of the infringed upon part may be assessed against the infringing party as part of a civil court case judgment. This means that over and above actual and statutory damages, the guilty party may be forced to pay the legal fees and court costs of the party that brought the lawsuit.

Other penalties for copyright infringement can include penalties for placing false copyright stickers or notices on works that they know to be false; in other words, trying to pass off fakes as real. This carries a maximum penalty under US Code of $2500. Similarly, $2500 penalties also apply to making false application for copyrights and removing or altering copyright notices appearing on any copyrighted work.

Statute of Limitations

In order for any of the above described penalties to be imposed, certain time limits must be met for an infringed upon party to bring suit or charges. The statute of limitations for criminal copyright violations is five years and there is a three year statute of limitations for a civil suit to be filed.

These are the basic penalties as set down in US Code, which is federal law. States may have additional penalties and/or fines based on state law. Imposition of federal penalties does not negate the ability of courts to impose additional penalties as set forth under state law.

Additional definitions of copyright infringement and accompanying penalties are constantly evolving as on-line publishing, advances in technical methods and international cyber-security issues are evaluated. The expansion of on-line content has created the need for new international and national laws to govern copyrights in the digital age. As this arena continues to expand, so will the need for additional legal safeguards and oversight.