Reply #135: The cases I've seen (and the supporting evidence)

[Ms. Toad]

have been for traditional download and subsequently making it available for upload. The last one I looked at was a couple of years ago (and the fines demanded were still in this same ballpark).

They may well have changed their targets and fine strategy to target people who are now using different technology that makes it harder to track (deliberately, in many cases) but results in (at least theoretically) more individual copyright violations to share a single piece of music.

If the targeted individual could prove how many users received a copy of his/her complete Madonna's "Ray of Light" was downloaded, it would make an interesting legal argument to counter the argument that the splitting of the file into fragments creating hundreds of copyright infringements as each fragment was downloaded or uploaded by establishing that the process only resulted in a dozen complete copies being made. I wouldn't want to pay for that defense - particularly since the evidence gathering would be pretty pricey (and might require the cooperation of people who don't want to be targeted). The mechanism of making a reproduction shouldn't increase the number of reproductions made. But if they can only prove how many fragments were uploaded or downloaded - and you can't limit that by proving that the mechanism created only a handful of complete copies - the cost of using evasion technology (which is what it is when used for this purpose) may have dramatically increased the price aid for getting caught.