The fines were originally about 200K and she kept fighting. The charges got worse in the next case with a new jury selection. So while those other crimes can result in little jail time, this RIAA penalty can also result in as little as $750 per song, which is the minimum. Maybe if she had better lawyers. Then again, there's good odds the charges aren't going to stick, so until this case actually ends, it's too early to say whether she's legitimately going to have to pay 2 million. Then again, these other crimes are prosecuted for the individual, while this copyright infringement case was used as an example to all of us as a scare tactic since they won't be trying any more. Basically this lady is paying for all of our sins.

Actually, throw on your paycheck + then add the difference between minimum wage and your current or potential pay after you get out. You can enen throw on some more at your own discretion for however much you value your own personal free time away from work where you aren't really spending anything, but you are having fun. There is no way I'd be hired back as a software engineer if I murdered someone. Espescially not for a government contractor where I have to have security clearances.

For a different way of looking at it:

According to two economists at Princeton University, the value of a human life was estimated at $1.54 million seven years ago.  Even accounting for inflation, from a purely economic perspective, the entertainment industry quite literally has the right to destroy your life if you are caught pirating.  To top it off, even the US Department of Justice says it's fair !  All for the "offense" of downloading the equivalent of one and a half CDs worth of songs...  I think it's fair to say that, in the US, the social contract of copyright (time-limited right to profit from the work before it passes into the public domain) has been thoroughly corrupted by media conglomerates.  If anyone wonders why nobody respects copyright law anymore, this is why.