Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
You are at the top end of a very long scale with that. To get any sort of jail term, you have to be found guilty in crown court of the criminal offence of making or dealing in items that infringe copyright ... basically what we used to call 'pirate videos', although these days that could be CDs or DVDs.
What the vast majority of p2p users are doing is the civil offence of copyright infringement. You cannot go to jail for that. If you are held liable for copyright infringement in the county court, the judge awards damages against you, in favour of the copyright owner. But in the case of p2p, that has never happened, except in a very small number of cases where the person accused of file-sharing has ignored their summons and has ended up with a default judgement against them.
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Chris,
Copyright infringement can warrant a criminal offence - especially secondary infringements with regard to distribution.
From the Act.
Offences
107 Criminal liability for making or dealing with infringing articles, &c
(1) A person commits an offence who, without the licence of the copyright owner—
(a) makes for sale or hire, or
(b) imports into the United Kingdom otherwise than for his private and domestic use, or
(c) possesses in the course of a business with a view to committing any act infringing the copyright, or
(d) in the course of a business —
(i) sells or lets for hire, or
(ii) offers or exposes for sale or hire, or
(iii) exhibits in public, or
(iv) distributes, or
(e) distributes otherwise than in the course of a business to such an extent as to affect prejudicially the owner of the copyright,
an article which is, and which he knows or has reason to believe is, an infringing copy of a copyright work.
The penalties are 6 months and / or £5,000.00 fine - as per
here. No "BPI dirty PR misinformation" required.