While I can’t say I like the Pirate Party getting a seat in the European Parliament, courts in the U.S. have swung in completely the opposite direction.

A U.S. court recently decided that a woman who illegally shared 24 songs over the Internet would have to pay damages of $80,000 per song for a grand total of $1.92 million. The songs she shared could have been download from the Internet for about 99 cents per title.

While I’m all in favor of punishing people who steal music (or provide it for others to be stolen) Biblical standards for restitution (such as Exodus 22) provide for damages of 4 or 5 times the amount stolen. While that is likely a general guideline and not necessarily and exact amount, 80,000 times the amount stolen seems a bit inflated

There has to be some middle ground between sharing files willy nilly and punitively penalyzing illegal file sharing.