Puts things into perspective, no?
BoingBoing has a rather disturbing post about the differences between stealing a DVD in a store and downloading it. While I find it ludicrous that the penalties are so much higher for infringement, it's not really surprising in the slightest. I would like to know if that's the case in more countries though, or if it's just the Yankees that have lost their marbles.

Or have they? One could make the argument that downloading should be much more severe than shoplifting, since it's so easy. Anyone with an internet connection can hop on to Gnutella and grab the latest Britney Spears mp3, but it takes at least some skill and a bit of luck to walk into a Wal-mart, nick the CD and escape. The difference is, of course, that downloading music is not technically stealing. Compare it to walking into the same Wal-mart, wiggling your nose and having a brand new copy of the CD appear in your hand. Neither you nor Wal-mart has paid for this disc, and they don't lose any stock. If you originally had the intent to purchase the CD, Wal-mart lost a sale, but if you worked your voodoo just for the hell of it, they didn't and are none the worse off, aside from not being able to convince you to give them money in exchange for goods.

I think the whole infringement issue could be dealt with far more effectively if the entertainment industry were able to view infringement not as theft, but as them failing to be able to get people to buy their music. This is not a criminal issue - it's an economic one.  ¶ 2:06 p.m.