I think the big difference here is that in the physical world all that work that lead up to distributing 1000s of DVDs carries much more weight to the person ma

I think the big difference here is that in the physical world all that work that lead up to distributing 1000s of DVDs carries much more weight to the person making the copies. With Napster it was literally just start the program and point it at your music folder. People don't see it as "fair" that you can click twice and be doing the same crime as someone who methodically collected all the DVD copying hardware, bought disks, made the copies, found distributors and systematically created a business whose purpose and intent was completely clear. I think the same logic for people applies to people posting in forum. Computers have drastically increased the productivity of everything, including breaking the law, to the point where it was so easy there was no time to think about what they were doing.