An addendum to micro-rant...
One of our coworkers was burglarized a while back and his entire CD collection was stolen. The thief wasn't caught, the collection wasn't returned.
Our coworker recently finished replacing all of his stolen music through P2P file sharing.
If he were caught "stealing" music through the Internet and was prosecuted he would likely owe more money and/or do more jail time than the thief who stole (actually, physically STOLE) all of his original CDs. Assuming the thief is ever caught, since by now the case is cold and nobody is looking for him, for this particular crime, anymore.
So it would seem it's not so much about the actual crime as it is who you commit the crime against. Steal from a citizen and get a slap on the wrist (assuming the effort to find you is vigorously applied, and you are in fact caught). Steal from a corporation and get sued into destitution.
I see a definite lack of balance here.
Our coworker recently finished replacing all of his stolen music through P2P file sharing.
If he were caught "stealing" music through the Internet and was prosecuted he would likely owe more money and/or do more jail time than the thief who stole (actually, physically STOLE) all of his original CDs. Assuming the thief is ever caught, since by now the case is cold and nobody is looking for him, for this particular crime, anymore.
So it would seem it's not so much about the actual crime as it is who you commit the crime against. Steal from a citizen and get a slap on the wrist (assuming the effort to find you is vigorously applied, and you are in fact caught). Steal from a corporation and get sued into destitution.
I see a definite lack of balance here.
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