Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
The dishonest person has gained the use of the item that the honest person pays $1000 for. I really don't see how you can possibly say that they haven't gained $1000-worth of goods. It's like saying that the bus company hasn't really lost anything if someone doesn't pay their fare. In both cases the dishonest person is a leech on the back of the honest purchaser of the goods or services, without whom the product or service wouldn't exist.
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I agree that the dishonest downloader is a free rider. Economies don't work well with free riders.
Where I disagree is that the fine requires to be a multiple of what the downloaded item(s) might have cost. The real value of these items is not as tangible as, let's say, the value of a bus ride. A specialized software dedicated to rendering 3D models may be worth $10.000 or more to the professional who uses it for his daily work. It certainly is not worth $10.000 to the high-school kid (who makes the majority of file sharers) - even if he downloaded it to complement his pirate software collection.