Legal context The prohibitively high cost of civil litigation is inefficient against millions of online infringers; it is virtually impossible to stop online infringement. The establishment and maintenance of a social norm which makes people willing to conform to pro-copyright norms independent of any consideration of legal incentives is indispensable in the fight against online infringers. It requires a credible enforcement mechanism to tell people that online infringement will not be socially acceptable and to increase copyright compliance; but the efficiency of such an enforcement mechanism is a function of transaction costs of copyright enforcement. The debate on the three strikes law should be viewed from its potential impact on our social and economic well being. I suggest that the infringing subscribers, not copyright owners or OSPs, should bear the cost of enforcement. Reducing transaction costs of enforcement is the key factor in designing any three strikes law if there is any reasonable chance that it will work.
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