....The problem for the RIAA and MPAA is that all they can see is that someone is copying a work — they cannot tell the purposes for which the work is being copied. Therefore, when they sign an affidavit to get a subpoena alleging a copyright "infringement," all they really know is that a copy has been made, not that an infringement has occurred.
....The law imposes four kinds of liability for infringement. The simplest is direct infringement — meaning you or somebody under your direct control (your agent) actually infringes. A second type of infringement is contributory infringement or vicarious infringement — you aid someone else's infringing activities, or you profit from their infringement and have the ability to control them. It is this theory that makes owners of P2P networks potentially liable.
A third category of infringement is implicated if you provide the technology to aid the infringement (e.g., the Sony Betamax case.) In that case, you are liable for the infringement others do with your technology, unless there is a "substantial non-infringing use" for your technology (e.g., time shifting TV shows.) Finally and most recently, the DMCA creates a new "circumvention" liability" — creating or disseminating technologies that are designed to circumvent a technological measure protecting a copyrighted work.
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