Current copyright law provides several remedies, both civil and criminal, for an owner whose rights have been infringed.
Civil remedies, i.e. those an owner pursues himself by suing the infringer include injunctions against the infringement and monetary damages. Damages can be either actual or statutory. Actual damages are the amount representing the actual loss to the copyright owner. Statutory damages are a set amount of money that an owner can choose to ask for instead of proving the amount of actual damages. This amount can range from $750 to $30,000 per work infringed. For example, if a person plays two CDs in a public place without the copyright owners’ permission, he is infringing the public performance right in the music and a court could order him to pay statutory damages ranging from $750 to $30,000 for each CD played. This amount could be reduced to $200 per CD if the user can demonstrate that he had no reason to know that he was infringing and can be increased to $150,000 per CD if the owner proves that the user knew he was infringing a copyright. In addition, courts can order the destruction of infringing copies and records and also masters or tapes from which the infringing copies were made.
Criminal remedies allow the federal government to prosecute infringers under certain conditions. Infringement becomes a criminal matter if it was made “for commercial advantage or private financial gain,” if the retail value of the infringed works exceeds $1,000, or if a work was leaked to the public before its intended distribution. Penalties may be as high as a prison sentence of 5 years depending on the scale of the infringement. These prison sentences can be doubled for second offenses. Courts can also order the forfeiture and destruction of any goods and equipment that aided in the infringement (i.e. CD-duplication equipment).
The penalty for breaking digital locks in violation of the DMCA is a fine of up to $500,000 and a maximum prison sentence of 5 years. This penalty can be doubled for a second or subsequent offense.