While most unfair competition cases involve the application of civil law, federal criminal exposure is also possible. Therefore, counsel needs to have a working knowledge of these criminal laws in order to advise companies/clients about unfair competition. This chapter contains an overview of the various federal statutes that apply to the different areas of unfair competition and some illustrative case summaries of their application. The No Electronic Theft Act (NET Act), Pub. L. No. 105-147, 111 Stat. 2678, was signed into law by President Clinton on December 17, 1997. It amended one of the Copyright Act's criminal penalty provisions—17 U.S.C.A. § 506(a)—raising the statutory damages by 50% and allowing the government to prosecute defendants who steal copyrighted material, even when there is no commercial benefit or monetary profit from the infringement.
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