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The primary difference is that copyright infringement is a civil offense, not a criminal one, so nobody would be "going to prison".
by Spoom 9y ago
The primary difference is that copyright infringement is a civil offense, not a criminal one, so nobody would be "going to prison".
- will_brown 9y agoCopyright Infringement is an act, and at least here in the US, an act which both criminal and civil laws provides specific penalties/remedies. On the criminal side, obviously, one of the penalties is imprisonment.
- Spoom 9y agoAh, I was unfamiliar with criminal penalties for copyright infringement. Could you go ahead and link me to the relevant US Code text that provides for such penalties?
- yellowapple 9y agohttps://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1204 https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1204 This happens to be the one under which Kite would fall (since they're infringing copyright for "commercial advantage").
- dungle6 9y agoWell I feel old as shit now. Back when DVDs and VHS tapes were a thing we were all indoctrinated by a big blazing "FBI Warning" of the penalties up to 5 years imprisonment and $250,000 fine.
- yellowapple 9y agoThat still leaves corporate espionage, which (last I checked) is a very severe offense. If that "source code" contained significantly-sensitive data (like medical info or info about legal cases), then there's a giant can of worms right there (and each of those worms has a surname of "Felony").
- s73ver 9y agoThere is such a thing, in the US at least, as criminal copyright infringement.