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United States

State Senator Caught Looking At Porn On Senate Floor 574

Everyone knows how boring a debate on a controversial abortion bill can get on the Senate floor. So it's no wonder that Florida State Sen. Mike Bennett took the time to look at a little porn and a video of a dog running out of the water and shaking itself off. From the article: "Ironically, as Bennett is viewing the material, you can hear a Senator Dan Gelber's voice in the background debating a controversial abortion bill. 'I'm against this bill,' said Gelber, 'because it disrespects too many women in the state of Florida.' Bennett defended his actions, telling Sunshine State News it was an email sent to him by a woman 'who happens to be a former court administrator.'"

Comment Re:jail time? (Score 1) 382

Your jaywalking analogy is erroneous. Jaywalking is most often a harmless crime (e.g., crossing a barren street), so it makes no sense to issue tickets in those instances. Indeed, tickets are hardly ever issued in such situations. Yet, when jaywalking is dangerous (like at busy intersections near college campuses), higher penalties are utilized. This is similar to copyright laws which usually preserve harsh penalties for the harmful situations (e.g., someone sneaks into a theater to make a bootleg that may very easily be distributed at hundreds of flea markets). Just like cop

Comment Re:jail time? (Score 1) 382

An alternate and more plausible explanation is the following deterrence principal: The magnitude of a punishment must be indirectly proportional to the frequency with with the punishment is used in order to maintain deterrence. Copyright laws have severe penalties because they are very rarely enforced against individuals. The nature of technology and cost of litigation make it difficult to increase the frequency of catching violators, so penalties must be increased to maintain deterrence.

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