Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
Obviously jailtime comes with downsides, namely, the support infrastructure. But it's the mark on their criminal record that's the most important and effective deterrent here.
So, if you gave convicted filesharers fines (with or without specific community service designed to pay it back), and put the conviction on their criminal record, it would accomplish the same as jailtime as far as their future was concerned: A black mark they'd have to spend years overcoming.
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Small fines similiar to what you would get for speeding offences would make the most sense. But there would be no logical reason to have them go down on someone's public record, because listening to an mp3 without permission from the copyright holder wouldn't pose a risk to the general public. Having such a non-crime (in the eyes of the majority of the population) affect the rest of someone's life would put it back into the territory of the punishment being wildly out of proportion to the crime.