Anna, if your books are out in the torrents, have you ever wondered how many people tried one from the torrents and then, discovering they like your work, went out and bought more from your publisher?
That's called exposure, and for an unknown writer/artist, it's pure gold. Nathan Lowell, a writer who now no longer needs a day job, started by putting his work out as free audiobooks on podiobook.com. He says that, without the exposure the Internet offered, his odd but engaging space opera series about solar clipper ships would have remained unknown and he'd still be drudging 9 to 5.
You might want to rethink your schadenfreude over this disproportionately high fine.
