Federal Sentencing Guidelines For Criminal Copyright Cases.

Understanding Criminal Copyright Infringement

Criminal copyright infringement is an offense that is punishable under federal law. If you are under investigation or have been charged formerly for engaging in copyright infringement activity, you might be interested to know the federal sentencing guidelines for criminal copyright cases. The sentencing guidelines is a manual that judges follow while deciding on whether one is guilty of a copyright offense or not. The manual also contains guidelines on the sentence or penalty to be passed in case one is found guilty.

If you have violated the copyright law, it is highly possible that you can go to jail. If you made these violations willingly and involved a certain amount of infringement, then some penalties will be prescribed. For copyright owners, they would be interested to know that there is a very high number of people who are facing criminal penalties for copyright infringement.

Base Sentencing Level

The base level for criminal infringement of copyright or trademark offense is level 8. After that, each case will be gauged independently based on its characteristics. Additional levels will depend on the nature of the crime. It is important to know that the sentence in criminal infringement copyright or trademark cannot be reduced below level 8.

Sentencing Guidelines Based on Infringement Amount

If the infringement amount is less than $5000 but exceeds $2000, the sentencing guidelines for criminal infringement of copyright or trademark demand that the sentencing or penalty be increased by one level. If the infringement amount exited $5000, the number of levels to be added would be determined under table§2B1.1 depending on the amount. This table shows different sentencing guidelines for crimes such as theft, property destruction, and fraud.

Sentencing for Performance, Display, and Distribution