What are the Penalties for Infringing Copyright?

People who infringe copyrights can be sued by the copyright holders for substantial amounts of money. In addition, anyone who willfully infringes a copyright may be prosecuted and face jail time. There are also the costs of having to hire a lawyer and go to court to defend against an infringement claim.

Some people believe that if they just share files with others, and don't charge for the files or otherwise make any money from file sharing, that the law doesn't apply. THIS IS WRONG. Copyright holders can still sue you for money damages. The No Electronic Theft (NET) Act makes it a crime to reproduce, distribute, or share, electronically or otherwise, copyrighted works such as songs, movies, games, or software programs, even if the person copying or distributing the material acts without any commercial purpose.

Copyright law, including the NET Act, applies to situations such as running a file sharing application with outgoing transfers enabled, hosting files on a Web account, transferring files through Internet Relay Chat (IRC), and other methods of making copyrighted material available over networks.