I can guarantee if any one of you had your copyrighted material stolen you would be after the highest settlement you could get. I can't understand this way of thinking. Just because it's a big corporation you think it wrong to prosecute this crime.
Entitlements anyone?
Why not just say the hell with it and make it illegal to sell your material. You must just give it away. You must make it available free of charge to anyone who wants it.
People don't commit crimes for one reason. Fear of punishment if they get caught. Take away the deterrent and there will be no stopping the thieves.

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BTW, if I purchase a hard copy book, I can legally pass that on to a friend(s) to enjoy for free. Maybe another poor analogy?


No. You cannot. You have purchased the book, or do you intend on stealing it?
You can pass along the actual book to one person to read. That is legal. But you cannot make and keep a copy of it for yourself. You can even read it aloud to a stadium full of 50,000 people. But you cannot give a copy of the book to them.

You cannot make copies of the book and give it to anyone.
That is what a COPYRIGHT protects against. ILLEGAL copying of the book.

As far as the punishment not fitting the crime goes? Well the punishment is written in law. Our Nation's laws. We have established punishments for crimes. That is what he got. If you don't like it then change the law.
If you don't want people being punished for stealing Copyrighted material then do away with copyrights altogether.

Last edited by Bill Robinson; 05/23/12 01:52 PM.
Bill
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