5 ms·
Would you steal a purse? If getting caught cost me $80,000 then probably not... So much for reasonable punishments.
by boryas 17y ago
Would you steal a purse? If getting caught cost me $80,000 then probably not... So much for reasonable punishments.
- dflock 17y agoImagine the outcry if all punishments were meted out on this kind of scale. Jaywalking: 10 years hard labour! And no, I wouldn't steal a purse, because a purse is a physical object, owned by an ordinary individual human being, who would be materially and emotionally harmed by the theft. This case of Copyright infringement involves imaginary property of enormously rich corporations who would not be materially affected by it in any measurable way. It's more akin to stealing an invisible mote of dust from the bottom of someones purse, without them being aware of it at any point. All the evidence actually suggests that music sharing increases income for commercial music as a whole, yet sharing these 24 tracks has resulted in a $2m fine. Ironically, you would be punished enormously less for actually mugging someone and stealing their purse.
- boryas 17y agoI wasn't trying to say that we should have equally barbaric punishments for purse-snatching but rather that we should have equally fair and reasonable punishments for file-sharing. I can see how my point was made unclear by the unsuccessful joke, though.
- fatdog789 17y agoCivil case. Your example is not analogous. Theft is a crime. Thomas committed a tort. The difference: police get involved with crimes, and you can be arrested for a crime. You cannot be arrested for a tort (unless the tort is the "civil" counterpart of a crime allowing the victim to recover for injuries from the crime).
- abstractbill 17y agoWould you steal a purse? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGXavXZwRcg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGXavXZwRcg ;-) (this judgment is a bloody disgrace btw).