does this set a bad precident too? 

when you break the law, the law should step in.  it's really a simple concept...without enforcement a law has no meaning.  don't forget, the ultimate freedom is the one where i shoot you in the face.  if you don't want live in a world where i can kill you just because i want to then you have to conceed you can't live the ultimate freedom. 

personally, i would like to live in a world where the hours i spend at work pushing bits around to create things that you want to consume is respected like any other career...  

An unlimited fine? Why are law makers so childish?

i really really hope you were just trying to be funny...

I guess they made it unlimited so that e.g. If bill gates does it they can charge him a few billion rather than a fixed fine of £1,000 of whatever

It does if they decided to blow up the building housing the gear, rather than prosecuting the people who were creating/selling the counterfiet products.

That is why courts exist. Courts exist to ensure people are acting legally when it comes to copyrights and IP theft. There is, in my mind, a huge difference when the government can step in, flip a switch, and shut off a website.

Look at what countries employ those types of things regularly - China Iran, North Korea, Libya (during the war). They are countries that leverage such technology to hurt life and liberty, not ensure that copyrights are enforced.

another stupid anti piracy thing where people who don't get it support it or are clueless and the entertainment industry shows that they will do anything to make a few more dollars.

you buy a $50,000 dollar car advertised as new when you try to sell it to a used car dealer he informs you that it was in an accident, you can sue the place you got the new car for about $150,000 dollars.
a CD cost about $20 new
pirate that CD get fined about $250,000 in the USA. 

pirate a blu ray disk, get 20 years in jail
stab someone, steal blu ray disk, get 7 years in jail

people don't pirate stuff because they are cheap asses like you think ( your one of the vast number of miss informed people who don't understand how piracy works) , if someone wants digital content bad enough they will BUY it.
if they kinda want it, or want to see if they like it first, or lost the CD/DVD/Game,  any many other reasons, people pirate it.
Proud to say i pirated numerous games and was saved the wallet acheing since they were plain GARBAGE.
command and conquer 4? I ALMOST bought it, but pirated it, Was terrible and didn't run smoothly on my computer, saved $50 or so, bought another game instead.
what if it was a great game? i would have bought it so i could play online.

if you look at games the games that are pirated the most are games people wouldn't normally buy at launch
skyrim, wasn't even in the top 10 for pirated games (shocking?)  but crysis 2 was number 1...

so why crysis 2 over skyrim? both were leaked BEFORE lauch.
many reasons. i'l list the cause i'm a nice guy.
Crysis = crysis 2 in the following:

1.  people love skyrim and wan to support the developers for making great games. elderscrolls never lets down. Crysis 2 isn't known for being a good game, its know as a PC benchmark. people love skyrim, people do not really love crysis ( in comparison)
2. Crysis had a loltastic bug for the first few weeks of launch, pirated copies COULD play on official EA servers!!! if you didnt care about the game you would pirate it just to witness the failure, Or, see if maybe you want to try the online?
3. Crysis is a PC benchmark, IF i wanted to see how many FPS my pc got, but didn't care for the game... why would i pay $60?
4. chances are, Skyrim will last you dozens of hours more then crysis  therefore skyrim = better deal
5. i just want the single player for crysis, self explanatory. if you plan on playing 5 hours of a game why would you spend the money? skyrim is a single player game that is epic, most multiplayer games have an after thought story, never worth the $$
6. can i run this game? the requirments of the first crysis were insane, not risking $60 just to be met with 5FPS on lowest settings.
7. i have the game on console, not paying for it again. shooters are on console now, many people are just now switching back to PC since the generation has gone on for so long..
8. upload ratio, some people care about this, so pirate a game just to upload it to hundreds of others.  this is rare so i have it at the bottom. i'm sure a few thousand people or so pirated crysis 2 just to upload it though

Skyrim, by all accounts should have been this explosion of piracy... but it wasn't simply because the people wanted to support the devs of good games.

Pfft, given how widespread the internet is nowadays I expected everyone to have axess to infinite money by now. Here's how in case someone's missed it:

it is in no way analogous to blowing up a building, you're just being a drama queen.  the site was shut down which is just like the restaurant a few block from me that had it's doors chained shut for selling alcohol without a liquour license.  they "flipped a switch" and it was closed.  ..and the site wasn't blown up, it's just inaccessible.

besides, I checked into this site.  it wasn't just a "storage" site or whatever where users were exchanging files illegally but seperate from site operators knowledge or intent.  the site itself had site created links to illegal music downloads making the legality of the site clearly in the wrong.  the site owner was arrested.  the site was shut down.  he's going to court over to face the criminal charges.  i really don't get your courts comment, the court system is being used just as it would be used in any criminal case.

again, this is simple.  obey the laws of the land or face the concequences.  stop being so dramatic..

lulz!