She could have broken into the houses of 17 people and stolen a CD and got much less of a fine. In fact she could probably have gone on a nationwide crime spree and got a smaller punishment. Of course, if she had committed any “normal” kind of crime, the prosecutors would have been forced to produce evidence, rather than conjecture.

I’m glad I live in the UK. I don’t use filesharing sites, but that doesn’t seem to matter as the RIAA can sue you regardless of whether they can prove you were sharing files at all. They have in the past filed cases against people who don’t own a computer or an internet connection.