Quote:
Originally Posted by usuallee
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.
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If the fine is not at a
minimum a multiple of the value of the goods obtained, it is in no way whatsoever a punishment. If I only got fined $500 for downloading $1000 of material illegally, I would have profited from my actions. And it needs to be a high multiple to act as deterrent. There would be no point in the bus company only fining people £10 for evading a £5 fare - people would just think "oh, it's worth the risk", and not pay.