Re:The text of Article 13 and the EU Copyright Directive has...
by icebraining on Thursday February 14, 2019 @03:01AM
(#19160365)
Nope, see Playboy v Frena, a pre-DMCA (and therefore, pre-Safe Harbor) case.
George Frena ran a BBS service, and some users uploaded Playboy pictures to share, so Playboy sued. The court explicitly wrote,
"It does not matter that Defendant Frena may have been unaware of the copyright infringement. Intent to infringe is not needed to find copyright infringement."
Furthermore, they also found Frena in violation of trademark (because the file names had "Playboy" in them).
Intent is important for criminal copyright law, but you can still be sued up to the wazoo (see the Thomas-Rasset case for the absurd values it can reach) by the copyright holder.
George Frena ran a BBS service, and some users uploaded Playboy pictures to share, so Playboy sued. The court explicitly wrote,
"It does not matter that Defendant Frena may have been unaware of the copyright infringement. Intent to infringe is not needed to find copyright infringement."
Furthermore, they also found Frena in violation of trademark (because the file names had "Playboy" in them).
Intent is important for criminal copyright law, but you can still be sued up to the wazoo (see the Thomas-Rasset case for the absurd values it can reach) by the copyright holder.