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You cannot catch everyone but if you catch a good few of them and slam them down with totally disproportionate punishment (like the fees the Music industry seems to ask every time they bring a 'pirate' to court -

I don't know a single person who's stopped downloading stuff illegally since they started doing that.

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So, for example, threaten and try the Anonymous guys under the new terrorist laws you got, asking for death penalty, LIFO or thereabout.

And fuck the inevitable backlash?

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All you need is: Catching a small % and increasing the penalty. The smaller the % you catch, the higher the pain you need to inflict for a deterrent effect to work.

I can't get hold of it at the moment, but most research tends to show that increasing the severity of the punishment has little effect if the likelyhood of being caught remains low. Inversely,a relatively small punishment is sufficient if it's practically certain that you'll get caught.

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Originally Posted by Zichao

I don't know a single person who's stopped downloading stuff illegally since they started doing that.

Chances of getting caught are still too low...

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And fuck the inevitable backlash?

Well, you need decent PR. "Of course, this may seem excessive to totally fuck up that geeky teenager. But we must not forget that what he did was actually perpetrate terrorist acts and aid and abet terrorists. Due to his deliberate and planned-out activities, which were spread over time, vital elements of national security were compromised and risks to our soldiers on the ground were increased. Informants may very well have been put to death as a consequence of his acts. We must stop this campaign of terror so that our children and soldiers remain safe".

I cannot recall an occasion when the US public has not rallyed behind cries of "national security is being compromised" to justify any kind of illiberal activity. As the saying goes, "if you got nothing to hide, you got nothing to fear"...

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I can't get hold of it at the moment, but most research tends to show that increasing the severity of the punishment has little effect if the likelyhood of being caught remains low. Inversely,a relatively small punishment is sufficient if it's practically certain that you'll get caught.

I think that the key is disproportion. If you get the death sentence for crossing roads outside of the zebra, I am pretty sure people will start crossing roads at zebra only even if the chance of getting caught is absolutely minute.

At least, I seem to recall that this approach worked with corruption. I would need to re-research my sources but, iirc, an african country managed to drop its corruption rate significantly because the guy in charge decided to execute a few people, including from his own family, who had been taking bribes...

It's signalling, basically.

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Well, you need decent PR. "Of course, this may seem excessive to totally fuck up that geeky teenager. But we must not forget that what he did was actually perpetrate terrorist acts and aid and abet terrorists. Due to his deliberate and planned-out activities, which were spread over time, vital elements of national security were compromised and risks to our soldiers on the ground were increased. Informants may very well have been put to death as a consequence of his acts. We must stop this campaign of terror so that our children and soldiers remain safe".

I think it's pretty much too late by now. Bin Laden and co looked scary from the start. Saying that Anonymous are terrorists now will just make them look cooler, Matrix-styleeeee.

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I think that the key is disproportion. If you get the death sentence for crossing roads outside of the zebra, I am pretty sure people will start crossing roads at zebra only even if the chance of getting caught is absolutely minute. At least, I seem to recall that this approach worked with corruption. I would need to re-research my sources but, iirc, an african country managed to drop its corruption rate significantly because the guy in charge decided to execute a few people, including from his own family, who had been taking bribes... It's signalling, basically.

The Chinese government occasionally executes people for corruption too - it doesn't have any noticeable effect on the overall levels.

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Originally Posted by Zichao

I think it's pretty much too late by now. Bin Laden and co looked scary from the start. Saying that Anonymous are terrorists now will just make them look cooler, Matrix-styleeeee.

Hmmm... I don't think so. The security scare is still doing well, I think, within anglo-saxon countries, esp. the US.

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The Chinese government occasionally executes people for corruption too - it doesn't have any noticeable effect on the overall levels.

Because everyone understands that it's a game and that the executees were either unlucky or broke some unwritten rule of how to be corrupt... i.e. Rather than being randomly selected amongst the corruptees as part of a wider effort, they're mere token...

Look, another example of this working is decimation. Decimation worked pretty well for the Romans and the western armies during 1917...

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Originally Posted by Gilles de Rais

Because everyone understands that it's a game and that the executees were either unlucky or broke some unwritten rule of how to be corrupt... i.e. Rather than being randomly selected amongst the corruptees as part of a wider effort, they're mere token...

A token randomly selected among the corruptees as part of a wider effort?

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Look, another example of this working is decimation. Decimation worked pretty well for the Romans and the western armies during 1917...

And when there's even the slightest chance that one in ten filesharers or members of Anonymous could be caught, then it might be a viable idea.

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Originally Posted by Zichao

And when there's even the slightest chance that one in ten filesharers or members of Anonymous could be caught, then it might be a viable idea.

I did say they had to put their back into it. But, with speedier legal procedures (expeditionary/summary judgement), it's do-able.

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Have you got proof of that?

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