Comment by Ajedi32
9 months ago
So your position is that it is illegal for me to watch a movie on Netflix that they don't have the rights to? Just that I wouldn't be prosecuted because I didn't intend to break the law? Unless perhaps I knew they didn't have the rights to it but watched it anyway?
That the judge will say you did not break the law because you reasonably believed you were following the law.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mens_rea
Copyright infringement is a strict liability offence, so not having intent isn't a defense.
However, in this scenario you'd very likely have a good "innocent infringement" defense, which would allow the judge to lower the statutory damages to as low as $200. Since the damages available are so low it wouldn't be worth suing over.