How long do you go to jail for copyright infringement?

How long do you go to jail for copyright infringement?

US:

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, first-time copyright infringement cases can carry a fine of up to $250,000 and up to five years in prison. If you get caught more than once in a copyright-infringement case, you could face additional fines of up to $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison. 

India:

The Copyright Act 1957 provides three kinds of remedies - administrative remedies, civil remedies and criminal remedies.[30] The administrative remedies provided under the statute include detention of the infringing goods by the customs authorities.The civil remedies are provided under Chapter XII of the Copyright Act 1957 and the remedies provided include injunctions, damages and account of profits. The criminal remedies are provided under Chapter XIII of the statute and the remedies provided against copyright infringement include imprisonment (up to 3 years) along with a fine (up to 200,000 Rupees).

Canada:

• According to section 34(4) of the copyright act, specific penalties will be decided by the court. Section 35(1) states that an infringer is liable for the financial gain made through infringement, and "such damages to the owner of the copyright as the owner has suffered due to the infringement". A copyright holder can instead elect to protect his/her copyright under section 38.1, which allows for "a sum of not less than $100 or more than $5,000 as the court considers just." for all non-commercial infringement, and $500 up to $20,000 for each commercial infringement.
• In addition to the civil penalties described above, Section 42(1) of the copyright act sets out a number of criminal offences. These primarily deal with infringement that involves sale or rental of copyrighted materials, and can result in fines of up to $1,000,000 or prison sentences of up to 2 years for indictment. For a summary conviction, the maximum fine is $25,000 and prison term is limited to 6 months.
• According to Section 44 of the copyright act, copyright owners may apply to have copies of their work that, were they made in Canada would be infringing, and are about to be, or have been, imported into Canada dealt with by the Canada Border Services Agency. In these cases, such copies can be detained, and eventually destroyed or handed over to the copyright holder, at the discretion of the court.

Australia:

The court has a wide discretion concerning possible punishments for copyright infringement. A good example of “serious” copyright infringement would be where the offender has built up a business of reproducing and distributing copyrighted material to the public.

In this case, there are a number of possible punishments:

• The court may impose a fine (which can exceed $60,000 for an individual or $300,000 for a company). However, the court's practice in the past has been to rarely impose anything like this maximum and look to mitigating factors such as the defendant's remorse or progress in reform.
• The court can impose imprisonment for up to five years in some cases. Again, the court would be quite reluctant to do so and would probably prefer financial punishment (a fine being the only option in the case of a company).
• In addition, the court may make a number of other orders (such as imposing restrictions on the defendant) or ordering the surrender of infringing copies to the copyright owner (usually for the purpose of destroying them). Interestingly, this power of destruction can be exercised by the court even if the defendant is found not guilty.

As with many criminal offences, the court can impose high penalties if it views the conduct as very serious. However, as the punishments can vary greatly, the assistance of a good defence lawyer is essential to reduce the likelihood of harsh penalties being imposed.

UK:

Copyright infringement can lead to substantial penalties, even if the UK legal system is unlikely to hit American levels of awards.

Upon conviction in the magistrates' court the maximum term of incarceration in the UK for copyright infringement is 6 months and/or a fine of up to £50,000.

Upon conviction in the Crown Court the maximum term of incarceration in the UK for copyright infringement is 10 years and/or an "unlimited" fine.