Quote:
Originally Posted by usuallee
100% Agreed. Downloading should be a slap on the wrist, speeding ticket type of offense, I'm not opposed to some sort of fine. I don't think it's right, but people's lives should not be ruined over it.
|
Any fine has to be considerably greater than the retail value of the goods obtained in order to act as a deterrent. My local bus company imposes a fine of 40x the fare that should have been paid for "fare dodgers", which seems like a reasonable deterrent. Let's say someone illegally downloads material which has a retail value of $1000. Would you consider a $40,000 fine for that offence to be unreasonable?