Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
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 offense to be unreasonable?
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For someone downloading for personal, non-commercial use (as opposed to commercial pirates), absolutely that is unreasonable. Even for a chronic offender, a $40,000 fine would be excessively vindictive, I believe. A fine of no more than $1000 for a repeat offender, and loss of internet privileges (like a black list that all ISPs and mobile providers would adhere to) for a certain period of time would be reasonable, and plenty enough deterrent, in my opinion.