Like for example: a drug raid, or they’re accusing you of illegal hacking, or some sort of TheSilkRoad type of stuff.
Assuming the original investigation find no evidence and leads to no charges, could they use the pirated content that you have as a last ditch effort to get you in prison? Not distributing, just personal use.
Not limited to any specific jurisdiction, just want to know what happens in general.
As far as the US is concerned (because a lot of this stuff does depend on jurisdiction), you’re most likely going to be raided by a state-level police department (local PD, county sheriff, etc). They don’t give a hoot about pirated material because that’s a federal crime.
If you were raided by the FBI, ATF, DEA, etc., they could use any pirated content they found to bring up criminal charges against you.
There are four essential elements to a charge of criminal copyright infringement. In order to sustain a conviction under section 506(a), the government must demonstrate: (1) that a valid copyright; (2) was infringed by the defendant; (3) willfully; and (4) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain.
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