On "potential damage" w/ copyright trials

A translation of this comment: http://liberatum.ru/news/24928#comment-38582

It interesting: why this method is not applied to those tried for any other crimes?
Say, a driver violated the speed limits a bit too much -- let's calculate his kinetic energy at the moment, calculate the amount of people he could have run over and try him for mass murder.

Or if a government official stole N billions: let's try him for murdering all the kids who could be cured by investing this money into building a hospital.

Policemen waste their time with seizing computers, while criminals "massively crime" with all sorts of murders. Put these policemen on trial for criminal negligence and the damage all the real criminals committed.

But no! The most dangerous criminals seem to be the computer users. Where did they got the idea that she [the person tried for installing a counterfeit product] would have otherwise spent $3000 on buying it legally? If all she has in her wallet is $100, then how would she spend $3000 on buying a program?

Let's say this great policemen kicked a person with no arms and legs, to what the disabled person replied "i wish you'd die!". The poor cripple would have been taken to court and tried for attempted murder ("if he had arms and legs, he'd surely commit his criminal plan"), right? Though, in this country, this COULD have really happened!

These criminal computer users have to be dealt even harsher with! ((-;
Does he have a wallpaper with a car? That's grand theft auto. Is it a naked woman? That's rape. Did he play a shooter? Again, that's mass murder: "what if that gun was real..?"

The principle of "potential damage dealt" should be applied even wider -- the law enforcement will have a whole lot of new space to work in!
It's even cooler than any "thoughtcrime" trials (well, he didn't think, but could have thought...;-)