In United States v. Chow Lieh Liu,
The court held that in order to criminally charge an individual for criminal copyright infringement and trafficking in counterfeit labels, the defendant's guilt must be determined based on whether he acted "willfully" and "knowingly," meaning the defendant had to know the labels were counterfeit.
In the above named case, Liu was the CEO of Super DVD, a DVD-manufacturing company with replication machines. However Super DVD began struggling and lost the replication machines.
Customs Enforcement agents raided the warehouse of Vertex International trading, a software reseller and discovered purchase order documentation from vendors including Super DVD.
Liu admitted that Super DVD manufactured Crouching Tiger but Liu realized that R&E did not have the actual rights so Super DVD pursued legal action.
Liu denied any involvement of replicating other works and that some Latin music was believed to be his uncles'.
Based on the above facts, the court held that Liu did not knowingly replicate counterfeit DVDs and was not criminally liable for copyright infringement.
This case gives me hope for courts because under Liu, innocent Defendants are protected. While this makes a harder case for the prosecution, the prosecution has the burden of proof.
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