Comment by tikimcfee
18 hours ago
Ok. For the people in the back:
If doing the bad thing is just a fine for one person and a life altering consequence for someone else, it is not a fair and equally distributed form of justice and is a gameable function needing to be fixed.
The caps don't help, and I don't care, unfortunately.
I don't even know what point you're trying to make. That it's fine they paid a billion dollars? So if they do it again, it's another billion? Oh well, guess I'm just not allowed to pirate things until I'm super wealthy. Or is it maybe the justice is being played out like it's supposed to? Oh, well, guess I better hope the system of governance that's being actively manipulated by the people that are breaking the same rules I am bound to suddenly and miraculously changes.
Like, I don't even detect a mote of "what they did is not ok."
Maybe you do think that and it's closer to you just trying to be careful about the letter of the law and you would also see to the justice system being fixed. I'd like that.
But you spending any time in your life to make this argument at all in their case is just goofy.
> If doing the bad thing is just a fine for one person and a life altering consequence for someone else, it is not a fair and equally distributed form of justice and is a gameable function needing to be fixed.
On that we agree.
> So if they do it again, it's another billion?
Judges don't like repeat offenders; the settlement was separate to the court case, but if it came to a court case, a judge would likely pick a bigger number. Especially as they earn a lot more now.
> Oh, well, guess I better hope the system of governance that's being actively manipulated by the people that are breaking the same rules I am bound to suddenly and miraculously changes.
While a generally useful concern, not particularly pertinent to a negotiated settlement.
> Like, I don't even detect a mote of "what they did is not ok."
One point five billion dollars is a strange idea for a lack of mote.
I mean, brother, if that's the mote in your eye, I'd hate to find out what the beam is.
> Maybe you do think that and it's closer to you just trying to be careful about the letter of the law and you would also see to the justice system being fixed. I'd like that.
The closer I look at it, the more I think the entirety of what we call "civilisation", legal system included, is a terrifyingly bodged together nightmare of duct tape and gremlins, codified in weird rituals and a smattering of latin and robes, where we only just about manage to not burn everything down by the collective will of enough people in the system wanting to be around for the next paycheque.
However, untangling a few millennia of spaghetti code written without the benefit of any automated checks, is beyond even governments who actively campaign on that as a platform, so what good would it do me or you to whinge about one specific case where it seemed to have actually gone approximately correctly for once?
> But you spending any time in your life to make this argument at all in their case is just goofy.
Read the actual court case please, it's not too challenging and I'm not even a lawyer: https://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/califo...