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Comment by jrockway | Hacker News Reader

Why do we call laws like these "anti-XXX"? The laws do not prevent piracy; it's already arguably illegal. All these laws do is excessively punish the offenders. We should call these laws "severe arbitrary punishment laws" instead, as that's what they actually are.

I'm fine with making sharing movies illegal, but the punishment should be something like a $50 fine, similar to riding public transportation without a valid ticket. The damage to society is similar (i.e., near zero), so the reparations to society should be similarly minimal.

Let's be honest. The world will not descend into chaos if people share movies and jaywalk. Let's not write laws that imagine otherwise.

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> but the punishment should be something like a $50 fine

Yes. And alleged offenders should be given a fair trial with the presumption of innocence. And there should be no collective punishment, i.e. punishing whole families for moe person's misdeeds.

The reason the fines are so high is that risk of getting caught is infinitesimal. This is the same reason they had to raise fines for honking in NY in non-emergencies to $500 to get people to stop. The appropriate fine should be something like

(damage to society) <= (fine) * (risk of getting caught)

Risk of getting caught is so vastly different online that it's a difference not just of degree, but of kind. The old formula makes no sense in this context. The purpose of a single person's fine in this context should never be full restitution of all the damage done by all the people.

(damage to society) <= (fine) * (risk of getting caught)

This is nuts. If say a kid spray paints a tiny bit on an abandoned building at night, and then gets caught, by your logic we should ruin his life. We must treat something like that like murder because the chances of getting caught are so low.

You can also work on risk part of the equation, of course.

They surely can't call them "freedom reduction" or "anti civil liberties" laws.

$50 ? Here in Australia it's a $200 fine for trains.. regardless of distance. 200 for a 2 min trip ? seems fair ...

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