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Originally Posted by PKFFW
As for why there are no cases about downloading specifically.......I would imagine it actually is because of nothing more than the fact that it would be too easy to defend against by simply claiming "I didn't know if it was subject to copyright."
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This is *exactly* the proper defense--and it is used when purchasing books as well.
I do not research my purchased books (from bookstores, yard sales, or ebay) to decide if they're infringing on copyrights.
I have some that I know were ruled to infringe on copyrights--books where accusations of plagiarism got them pulled from publication. However, the copies I own are still legal. I wasn't required to not buy them--not even if I knew there was a lawsuit against the author going on.
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And note, that defence is not in anyway claiming that no offence has been made, only that the accused was unaware they may have been committing an offence.
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Receiving something that violates copyright is not against the law. Distribution is against the law. It's unclear where "creation of a copy" falls, especially with all the personal use options that have been authorized. (Not that you have the right to "use" someone else's material, but between personal-use rules, and the facts of how computers deal with files, I'm not sure "creation" of a copy is against the laws at all.)
If you visit a website that has infringing content, it automatically creates a copy of that page on your hard drive. It may be in a folder called ~temp, or it may not, depending on your browser, OS and other settings. If your computer automatically archives to an external drive, it may create another copy of the page. If you periodically burn your archives to DVD, you may have another copy.