Man fined $1.5 million in damages for sharing 10 porn movies

[Mavrickx888]

mav
When you are dealing with this type of settlement, its not about generating fear. It is solely about punitive damages. This gentleman had to know what he was doing was illegal and he did it anyways. This is the punishment. This is what he has to pay. I personally dont like the amount the guy has to pay, but HE has to pay it.

Regardless of personal responsibility, that figure just seems ridiculously absurd. I mean, you might as well go and commit armed robbery and steal the physical media; you'll only be set back a hundred grand or so and a few years in prison for an act that's potentially infinitely more damaging to yourself and others. Obviously that's a gross simplification, but you get my point.

I'm not for letting this guy off the hook by any stretch of the imagination. I just have an extremely hard time comprehending the purpose in attaching such bloated fines to these cases. Let's face it, statistically speaking, more than likely it will take this guy another life time to get anywhere close to paying the fine, so what's the point?

 

[Tygerstrike]

mav
I would suggest you look up the total meaning of "punative". Basically it is punishment in order to ensure that the individual NEVER does it again while paying the victims for the crime involved. It is punishment. Its either 1.5 million or some serious jailtime. Personally I see this going to appeals. There is no way any individual entity can or would pay 1.5 mil. I'm betting that it will be dropped to atleast half that. If not more.
Im guessing that number was generated by the lawyers for the plantiff. Something in the 3-4 million. The calculate that by how many times his file was shared vs how much revenue that the porn company lost due to them being able to just download for free instead of going to the porn companies website and having to purchase it. They prolly factored in the lost POTENTIAL revenue of each customer as well. Since it is potential revenue and not actual revenue the Judge had to hack it all in half. Reguardless, this not only sets a precedent about piracy, it also nails home the point that piracy costs everyone. Perp and victim alike. Just fair warning, this is going to get far worse before it gets any better. JUST SAY NO TO PIRACY. If you feel you are smarter then them or you have some workaround, forget it. You have no idea what security measures are embedded into that movie/game/music you just pirated. Its just not worth the headache.

 

[Mavrickx888]

this is going to get far worse before it gets any better.

And that's the saddest part of this story...

 

[Guest]

Apparently a gay porn company hahaha this guy...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flava_Works

 

[Tygerstrike]

mav
I agree, and the only thing that will stop this, is something ppl will not do. Stop pirating!! All it will take is a significant drop in piracy numbers and the lawmakers ect. will back down and move on to the next big issue. Its sad that given rulings like this ppl still wont stop.