I had jury duty for a case that involved an undercover cop asking a man on the street where he could buy crack, the man asked for money, the cop gave him some, and then the man pointed to another man down the street. The original man was on trial for conspiracy to distribute drugs, even though he wasn't actively in league with the actual dealer.
He was on trial because he solicited a fee. If he'd told there would be no conspiracy. His act constituted a "finders fee" for criminal activity.
The irony here is that if the man actually was a front, he would have likely told the cop to fuck off as soon as the cop was willing to pay. Druggies don't have the cash to pay 'fees' to find dealers, most don't have the cash to pay for their drugs without stealing.
Except copyright infringement is a civil matter. Drug usage is (unfortunately) a criminal offense. I'm not aware of any precedent that would make it illegal (in a criminal sense) for one to do something which might cause a third party to sue.
> Except copyright infringement is a civil matter.
Copyright infringement is a felony if:
1. it is for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain by the reproduction or distribution during any 180-day period of 1 or more copies of 1 or more copyrighted works which have a total retail value of more than $1000; or
2. it is the distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if the person making it available knew or should have known the work was intended for commercial distribution.
Adding to that, I think that the NET ("No Electronic Theft") Act made it so that trading in copyright infringing works could be considered 'commercial' in some circumstances, though I don't remember the details offhand. This would go hand in hand with point #1.
I had jury duty for a case that involved an undercover cop asking a man on the street where he could buy crack, the man asked for money, the cop gave him some, and then the man pointed to another man down the street. The original man was on trial for conspiracy to distribute drugs, even though he wasn't actively in league with the actual dealer.