I've been asked to come for police questioning on copyright infringement charges... how should I respond?

Hello. This is a copyright specialist attorney from Daeryun Law Firm.

If you have received a police summons on copyright infringement charges, taking it lightly can be very risky.

Violations of copyright law can result in imprisonment of up to 5 years or fines of up to 50 million won depending on the case, and in fact, many cases have prosecution decisions made based on statements during the police investigation stage.

Therefore, before responding to the investigation, you must first accurately organize how your conduct may be evaluated under copyright law.

In particular, for copyright infringement cases involving torrent use, due to the structural feature that uploading occurs simultaneously with downloading, the user's intent, scope of awareness, and actual sharing become key issues.

In this process, vague statements like "I'm not sure but it seems so" or "It might have been shared" carry a high risk of being interpreted as admission of intent.

Before the police investigation, you must check the following items.

First, you should organize, based on facts, when and how often the problematic copyrighted work was used and what the purpose was.

Also, you should distinguish whether there were commercial purposes or repeated infringement acts.

Furthermore, copyright infringement charges are in principle offenses requiring complaint, so criminal proceedings only proceed if the rights holder files a complaint.

Therefore, leading to a withdrawal of complaint through settlement at the early stage of the case can also be an important response strategy.

In this case, the attorney provides practical assistance throughout the entire process from negotiating settlement terms with the copyright holder to drafting the settlement agreement and submitting it to investigative agencies.

Above all, what is important is that statements made during the police investigation stage are practically difficult to retract afterwards.

If you organize your statement direction and response strategy with the help of a copyright specialist attorney before responding to the investigation, you can sufficiently review the possibility of the case being closed with non-referral or non-prosecution.

If you have received a police summons on copyright infringement charges, rather than judging alone before the scheduled investigation, we recommend promptly seeking professional legal consultation to prepare a response plan tailored to your situation.