This is funny. There's going to be a huge applause for this post but whenever there's an article about an individual being prosecuted for piracy... it's the evil RIAA.
Edit: I'm not trying to turn this into a a piracy argument but I do think there's a double standard there.
The part that incites anger isn't prosecuting someone for behavior on the internet, it's the actual behavior. Astro-turfing reviews hurts consumers and thus this prosecution is applauded by consumers. Consumers downloading music hurts the producers and thus is applauded by the producers (well, some of them).
It's really not hard to understand why seeing the "little" guy be attacked incites more popular anger than the reverse.
I think it's pretty obvious why the little guy story is more popular but i think both stories are pretty much the same.
Numbers aside, putting a significant fine on a company that's breaking the law is no different than a fine on an individual. It's meant to make an example out of them to discourage similar behavior in the future... no?
So by this standard, HN should applaud prosecutions and searches under the new blasphemy laws in Ireland, because breaking the law is no different, no matter the law?
These headlines will typically turn into a cheercamp and I was just pointing that out. I probably worded it poorly but let's not applaud or boo at all.
This is a little different, though, isn't it? The RIAA does things like sue an individual for $300,000, well beyond what most individuals even have, much less are able to pay. This company was paying their staff to be fraudulent, and are likely in a better position to take the $300,000 fine as a slap on the wrist than individuals are.
I might even applaud the RIAA for helping to stop copyright violations (which, right or wrong, are indeed illegal) if they fined individuals for the price of a few albums rather than for a decade's worth of their salary.
It would be impossible to fine each individual the price of a few albums. They have to grab headlines with a huge figure and hope that it scares enough people away. It's a battle for headlines, they're not actually expecting to see that money.
Edit: I'm not trying to turn this into a a piracy argument but I do think there's a double standard there.