This article analyzes the introduction of the civil penalty in Uruguay as a legal mechanism to protect copyrights in Uruguayan law, focusing on the legal grounds and criteria for its establishment. The central idea is that the difficulties of proving consequential damages or lost profits justify determining compensation as the obligation to pay the hypothetical royalty (the cost the infringer would have paid if they had obtained permission from the right holder). This method reduces the evidentiary burden on the plaintiff but offers weak deterrence, as the infringer only pays what they would have paid when seeking permission. The ease of committing infringements with new technologies, along with the limited effectiveness of traditional compensatory methods, led Uruguayan law to incorporate a civil penalty option in 2003, strengthening copyright protection and providing an additional ince...