While I agree with you in spirit, I believe penalties for downloading usually have to do with redistribution via BitTorrent. People sometimes forget (or never k

While I agree with you in spirit, I believe penalties for downloading usually have to do with redistribution via BitTorrent. People sometimes forget (or never know in the first place) that when you download via BitTorrent you’re also distributing. However, I totally agree with the sentiment, and I’ve long felt this way about petty crimes like shoplifting, which are harshly punished and shamed, while on the flip-side you have crimes like wage theft which goes effectively unpunished and is even defended as legitimate by some.