This is one of my first letters to actually complain to a corporation. I hope it helps.

Partly in response to the recent post on the topic at DrunkenBlog, I’ve elected to voice my concern on the issue of Apple suing those users found sharing the Tiger pre-release on bittorrent. I understand that it is important to protect ones IP. I also think that Apple should be able to extract penalties from those who infringe on its IP in proportion to the damage they’ve done.

Why, then, is Apple doing so much damage to these college students? The amount it has lost from their activities cannot possibly total more than $10,000, yet this suit will force them to spend more than that each. The amount spent by each of these individuals relative to their net worth will make $10,000 look like chump change compared to Apple’s net worth. While this need not be a legal concern, it ought to be a humanitarian concern.

What does Apple hope to accomplish by suing them? Making sure they won’t do it again? I’m fairly certain they won’t. I am a college student, and if I were sued by a large corporation I’d make absolutely certain never again to engage in whatever activity was deemed offensive. Does Apple want to set an example? If that’s so, why isn’t it being publicizing more along with Apple’s explanation of the events?

I’m concerned that the punishment outweighs the crime in this case. I love Apple products and I recommend them to my friends. I switched from Windows two years ago not only because I believed the system to be technically better and that it would provide a better user experience, but because I felt the company itself was actually somewhat trustworthy and humane. I hope that this case will not show me to have been wrong.