Ohio Rules on the Cost of Infringement

In State v. Lalain the Ohio State Supreme Court reversed a lower-court holding, saying that the amount of restitution in an intellectual property misappropriation case "cannot be greater than the amount of economic loss suffered as a direct and proximate result of the commission of the offense." That seems like common sense, but as we've seen in the past, the Cartel has pursed and gotten monstrous and shocking judgment amounts against individuals. There's an interesting nexus here in that IP law is generally a Federal matter and theft a state matter, which leads to the bizzarro-world situation where stealing something is a lesser crime than copying it.