[QUOTE="Inconsistancy"]
I'd say, the maximum punishment should be the value of the copied media; and just streamline the court process, where you can either pay the fine, or challenge it in court.
Planeforger
A penalty that low wouldn't be a disincentive to anyone. People already aren't phased by massive penalties, so lowering them would only increase piracy. And surely there has to be some monetary recognition of the pirate's blatant disregard of the rights-holders' rights.
Also, your suggestion wouldn't cover the problems of people seeding downloads to other people in peer-to-peer situations, which is kind of a big deal. There has to be some acknowledgement of the fact that each uploader may be enabling a hundred other people to violate the law.
Who cares if you stop it, if you can just force people to pay for it anyway?::downloads copyrighted thing off naughty pirate site:: ::gets fined the cost of the product with option to challenge in court::
Unless people band together to challenge the courts, this would work fine. It's clear the enormous fine doesn't prevent piracy anyway. (which is probably a violation of the 8th amendment anyway, for most cases)
And for the uploaders, if they're caught, you charge them for each time they uploaded something. If you catch both, the court punishes both equally and there is a double pay-out. win win.
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