While $1B seems excessive, and more of a number to make a point... Broadly speaking, the "content industry" has habitually been dragging individual file-sharer

While $1B seems excessive, and more of a number to make a point... Broadly speaking, the "content industry" has habitually been dragging individual file-sharers into court and claiming life-altering, bankruptcy-forcing judgements for more trivial violations, in order to terrify the general public into compliance. If the threat of a $1B judgement is enough to threaten Getty with bankruptcy, if it's enough to scare other rights-claimers into making their businesses more businesslike, that's actually very comparable.