That's not 100k per violation on the download side it's 100k per work. Each work could be downloaded multiple times. The infringement damage is also the cost t

That's not 100k per violation on the download side it's 100k per work. Each work could be downloaded multiple times. The infringement damage is also the cost to make whole the copyright holder not necessarily the value to the person who did the pirating. Consider you have a painting that's worth $5m and I steal it.[1] If I go to sell it, I'm not going to be able to go to a reputable dealer so I can only sell it for less. Say $1m. Now say I get busted and I have to pay you restitution. I won't only have to pay the value to me ($1m) I have to pay the value that you lost ($5m), because that's the principle of equity - that you should be made whole as far as possible the damage you have suffered. Some value ($4m in this example) has been destroyed but the court doesn't actually care about that - that's my problem because I have to find that from somewhere to pay you back. [1] I know there are meaningful differences between piracy and theft of a physical item I'm just using the physical example because it makes clear how damages work in the legal sense.