>Nobody would argue that people hit with $100 million judgments for copyright violations while torrenting music actually had copyright on that music

I don't understand the above, but they've actually made this judgement, and it's much too large. A firm worth as little as 30 million can be an incredible innovative company, supported by a government and serious effort, and here we have people just handing out a 1 billion dollar fine over something where nothing even close to that value has been destroyed.

It's as I said in my initial comment, the value of a whole town.