Pirates, without copyrights or licenses, place an illegal order at a CD mastering or manufacturing plant. The competition in the CD replication industry is intense, to the point that some plant personnel do not check orders as carefully as they should. Soon, thousands of illegal counterfeited discs are on the shipping dock. U.S. copyright law provides for strict liability for copyright infringement. If a CD plant presses an illegal disc, the plant is liable.
Ignorance is no excuse.