Quote:
Originally Posted by OtterBooks
Copyright infringement is not about what you take, it's about what you make. The problem with basing compensation on sale value, at least in the context of an illicit download, is that the infringement is not wrongful appropriation of quantifiable property.
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It's not a matter of what the owner has lost, but of what you have gained.
If you ride on a bus without paying the fare, or you sneak into the cinema and watch a film without buying a ticket, you could argue that the bus operator or the cinema owner hasn't "lost" anything as a consequence, but it's clear that you have gained something - a trip on the bus, or watching the film - and that something has a definite value. The only meaningful way to assign a value is to base it on what a legitimate purchaser would have paid for that same product or service.