Comment by cheschire
17 hours ago
You say “unknowing” as if that’s a defense, but last I check you could still be charged with a crime even without being aware of it before hand. The punishment would likely be more lenient if you can convince the judge effectively that you had no knowledge, but you’re still going to court if caught.
The reason the viewer in your example is not liable though is because there is no reasonable expectation that viewers should (or even could) verify that Netflix held the rights to season 1. The license that the viewer has to access any media is between them and Netflix, not between them and each individual media rights-holding company.
Sorry for the tangent.
Not a tangent – this is exactly the point I was trying to make but perhaps did not do so as clearly as you did. The infringement is always about distribution, not consumption.