Criminal Copyright Conviction Vacated.

Defendant was convicted of criminal copyright infringement and trafficking in counterfeit labels. The district court gave the following instruction: “An act is done ‘knowingly’ if the defendant is aware of the act and does not act through ignorance, mistake or accident. The government is not required to prove that the defendant knew that his act was unlawful.” The Ninth Circuit vacated the Criminal Copyright Conviction, stating: “[Defendant’s] guilt turns on whether he acted ‘willfully’ and ‘knowingly.’ We hold that the term ‘willfully’ requires the government to prove that a defendant knew he was acting illegally rather than simply that he knew he was making copies. Similarly, to ‘knowingly’ traffic in counterfeit labels requires knowledge that the labels were counterfeit.”(United States of America v. Liu (Ninth Cir.; October 1, 2013) 731 F.3d 982.