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I didn't say that this was what happened here, but just that if you limited demages solely to the cost of the product itself, then the deterrent effect would be reduced, potentially to a level low enough that pirating could be arationally profitable strtaegy. That's all. Good thing for WotC...

I figure WotC is going after the low-hanging fruit first.

That only really works in criminal cases. The plaintiff in a civil case can appeal an adverse decision (unlike the government in a criminal case), and contest the decision on the basis that no rational jury could come to that conclusion while following the law.

Well, in this case no one did. But, for example, if the uploader got paid some amount per each download, then if damages were limited to the retail value of the uploaded product, then once you discount for the expected chance of getting caught, illegal uploads in this manner could be profitable...

It is certainly a traditional common law element. Some juridsictions may have changed this, but the classic version of adverse possession is: Some jurisdicions allow adverse possession to run without a colorable claim, but lengthen the required period of time, usually it seems like they...

Well, yes and no. A defendant can always reprsent themselves pro se (unless they are a coporation), so the possibility of legal fees isn't certain. Generally, when establishing penalties, (at least in the U.S.) attorney's fees only "count" if they are being shifted from the winner to the loser...

There was something vaguely similar to this in Mongoose's Shaman's - Call of the Wild. It was based upon getting spirit guides to give you access to particular domains, from which you could then cast spells.

Well, it depends. Normally one would expect to compensate the owner of property for the amount of harm caused, and in a run of the mill tort case, this is generally what happens. In this case, however, there is also a public policy goal, that of protecting copyright holders. How much of a...

Perhaps you'd like to back that statement up. The number of copies being shared isn't the baseline metric. The number of people uploading WotC content is. That's likely what, less than ten thousand? Unless the number is in the millions, then the chance of you uploading something and getting...

One of the elements of adverse possession is that the property has to be held under a colorable claim of right. In other words, you have to believe that you have a valid legal claim to the property that isn't entirely specious.

I don't see the need to conform my posting style to your desires. Really? Do you seriously think more than 1.5 million people uploaded WotC content to file sharing services on the web?

It was the summer in between my 3rd and 4th grade year. I was living in Tanzania, but was in the U.S. for a month and visiting a friend of mine I had known before I moved overseas for an overnight visit. we had both been Tolkien and fantasy fans before I left (he gave me a copy of The Book of...

The odds of being struck by lightning are 576,000 to 1. The odds of being tagged with a judgment for uploading copyrighted materials appears to be considerably less favorable.

Interesting, so you are saying that if you were going to pirate, then the fact that you could get smacked with a $100,000+ judgment against you for doing so wouldn't factor into your thinking at all? You must have lots of disposable cash lying around.

I guess I just disagree here. I don't think the damages are particularly disproportionate, especially since the range of damages was not kept a secret before these guys decided to break the law. If the damages were not painful, then they wouldn't really serve their purpose, would they?

Actually, the unemployed do fall into the statistic, as they do have income. And $10/hour works out (at 40 hours per week) to about $20K, so even a significant number of those below the median will be above the $10/hour line (in fact, you have to get to the bottom 20% of income earners to get to...

The median income in the U.S. for people over 25 is $32,000. That's considerably more than $10/hour.

Not according to Congress. In fact, the $100,000 settlement is far less than Congress thought the upper range for this sort of thing should be.

Did they pay the rights holder for the use of their property? No? Then they haven't paid their own expenses.

Sure you could. What is stopping you? Could one factor possibly be that you'd run the risk of being liable for many thousands of dollars in damages?