BIA Issues Important Decision on Criminal Copyright Infringement and CIMTs

In the Matter of Zaragoza-Vaquero, 26 I&N Dec. 814 (BIA 2016), the BIA held that a federal conviction for criminal copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. 506(a)(1)(A) and 18 U.S.C. 2319(b)(1) is a crime of moral turpitude. A key point was that the statute requires the infringement to be willful, that is, a voluntary violation of a known duty to not infringe on copyrights.