Legal Intellectual

Tired of unprofessional or promotional legal answers?
Daeryun specialist lawyers will answer your questions.

I have been told to come in for a police investigation on suspicion of copyright infringement... how should I respond?

A few days ago, I received a request to appear from the police, stating that there was a suspicion of copyright infringement. In the past I have used a torrent program, but I have never distributed or sold files for commercial purposes; I only watched videos personally. I am anxious because I have no idea what points the police will focus on in the investigation, what I should say, and what I should not say. I am also worried that saying something wrong might lead to criminal punishment or a fine. I would like to know whether, when one comes to be investigated by the police on suspicion of copyright infringement, there are matters that must be prepared before the investigation, and whether this is a situation in which I should receive an attorney's help.

Answer to Related Inquiry

Author: 김국일

Hello. This is a copyright attorney at Daeryun Law LLC.

If you have received a request to appear before the police on suspicion of copyright infringement, responding lightly can be very dangerous.

A violation of the Copyright Act may, depending on the matter, be subject to imprisonment for up to five years or a fine of up to 50 million won, and in fact, in many cases whether an indictment is brought is determined by the content of statements made at the police investigation stage.

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

In particular, in copyright infringement cases involving the use of torrents, because of the structural characteristic that uploading takes place simultaneously with downloading, the user's intent, the scope of their awareness, and whether actual sharing occurred become the key issues.

In this process, ambiguous statements such as “I am not sure, but it seems so” or “it may have been shared” carry a high risk of being interpreted as an admission of intent.

Before the police investigation, you must be sure to check the following matters.

First, you must organize, based on the facts, when and how many times the work in question was used and what the purpose of use was.

In addition, you must distinguish whether there was a commercial purpose or a repeated act of infringement.

Furthermore, a charge of copyright infringement is in principle a crime requiring a complaint to prosecute, so the criminal procedure proceeds only when there is a criminal complaint by the right holder.

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

In this case, the attorney provides practical assistance with the overall procedure, from negotiating the settlement terms with the copyright holder to drafting the settlement agreement and submitting it to the investigative agency.

What is most important is that a statement made at the police investigation stage is practically difficult to retract later.

If, before responding to the investigation, you organize the direction of your statement and your response strategy with the assistance of a copyright attorney, you can fully examine the possibility that the case will be concluded with a non-referral or non-prosecution.

If you have received a request to appear before the police on suspicion of copyright infringement, rather than deciding alone ahead of the scheduled investigation, we recommend that you promptly prepare a response suited to your situation through a professional legal consultation.