Single-mother must pay almost $2m for... downloading 24 songs?

[InsaneMystic]

So anyone who commits a crime, the punishment should fit according to who gets affected by it, not by what the crime is?

That's not an either-or decision. I don't know how it is in other jurisdictions, but at least over here, when it comes to fines, you will most definitely be punished differently for the same crime depending on how much you earn. If you earn five times as much as your neighbor, a German judge will sentence you to a fine five times as high as your neighbor faces, if all other circumstances are equal. (It should go without saying that the same does not apply to jail time, of course - were just talking monetary fines here.)

Anyway, this isn't really about penal charges (paid to the state, under criminal law), but recompense for lost money (paid to the music companies themselves, under civil law), right? If those 2 million were indeed penal charges, the judicial system seems in urgent need of pretty drastic change... that sum is ridiculous, it certainly seems several hundred times too high to me (unless the accused were, like, Bill Gates, or the Queen of England 😛 ).

As for recompense... well, to say the least, I find it highly debatable whether or not the company actually would have made that much money from the songs. It's mere speculation about "virtual monies", no one can really say how many people would actually pay money for songs if no one ever offered them for illegal DLs; hard to say what sum would be realistic and where wishful thinking on the side of the industry begins.

 

[BillyidolwannaB]

2mil! Ha ha thats so ridiculous. Someone should sue RIAA for putting out bullshyt music. Somehow i dont see her paying 2 million.

 

[Harley]

That's not an either-or decision. I don't know how it is in other jurisdictions, but at least over here, when it comes to fines, you will most definitely be punished differently for the same crime depending on how much you earn. If you earn five times as much as your neighbor, a German judge will sentence you to a fine five times as high as your neighbor faces, if all other circumstances are equal....

What's the word? Retributive justice? Let the punishment fit the crime?

I'm not saying here that the billion-jillion dollars she's being fined is fair. I'm saying the fact that she's a single mother should have no baring on the punishment whatsoever.