@ TS_aficionado
I'm not going to do a quotation since that would make for one long post...
I don't know... the line has to be drawn somewhere and I think the overwhelming majority of musicians, artists, photographers, videographers, webmasters, content producers, etc. out there would love to see these cases prosecuted more fully. The reality is that there just isn't funding for these crimes which, as a whole, are viewed by law enforcement as 'victimless.' (I was told as much by a Salem, OR detective who I gave the address, IP address and etc. to for someone who had downloaded and reposted a huge collection of videos from my site and refused to check it out).
Now... I totally understand where you've become jaded by prosecutors trying to make 'examples' out of small, rinky dinky cases like the ones you and I mentioned earlier. And, like I said earlier, I don't agree with wanting to put a felony record of theft on some 15 year old's record for downloading songs. But, when it comes to people who run torrents and boards which actively promote content piracy and just laugh at you when you send them an email or letter asking them to remove links... I say, throw the book at them.
I don't see this as a helpless wave of technology which we all have to adapt to. Technology criminals are (for the most part) smart. We have to become smarter. People will always find a way to override safeguards, but, the average porn surfer isn't going to spend the time to learn how to defeat a DRM... because the average porn user is just good ol, blue collar joe blow wanting to get off. I like him. He wants his porn and a few minutes of pleasure. And I want to help him.
The suit doesn't disappear... the costs are still VERY apparent to the store owner. He may have another one in stock but he's still out the cost AND profit for the original. With digital media, the costs are even higher because it is an ongoing crime. Who knows how many people viewing a stolen movie would have joined a site otherwise? It's very difficult to put a price on it.
When I was younger and Napster was the brand new shiny thing... I was the first to jump in line and say, wow... free stuff! How cool! I must have downloaded a ton of music. And, for a long time, I never bought a CD. Then, I started a site and started seeing my content pop up on file-sharing sites. That was the end of my support of Napster and other sites encouraging free content sharing. Don't get me wrong, there are legitimate things going on on some of those sites but I do NOT support illegal content sharing in any way. It hurts me, it hurts the industry, and in the long run, it hurts the legitimate purchasers of the content as sites have to raise prices to make up for lost revenue, just like stores pass on the prices of 'shrinkage' (shoplifting), doctors pass on the prices of insurance, etc.
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