Piracy, or the act of illegally downloading content, is a federal offense. When pirating, you are essentially stealing from the software publisher. If charged by a software publisher, you can be accused of copyright infringement. This results in a lawsuit requiring the violator to repay all damages and profit earned off of illegal software. The maximum fine is 150,000 USD per stolen item. Therefore, the more copies of the software you distribute, the more you have to pay per file. Image source