You need to be really careful how you "motivate" people in these kinds of situations if you want to have a positive effect. A study was done at Petrified Forest

You need to be really careful how you "motivate" people in these kinds of situations if you want to have a positive effect. A study was done at Petrified Forest National Park comparing the rates at which petrified wood was stolen depending on whether signage said people had stolen petrified wood in the past. Turns out 4x more people were willing to steal if they knew other people had done it before them. Unfortunately, I think the method used in the post falls into the "4x more" category. David may have unwittingly increased piracy rather than reducing it. [1] http://www.psychologicalscience.org/pdf/cialdini.pdf http://www.psychologicalscience.org/pdf/cialdini.pdf (see the section on Environmental Theft).