• Microsoft Antipiracy Case: 11 Convicted

    Microsoft Antipiracy Case: 11 Convicted

    Techtree News Staff, Jan 02, 2009 1703 hrs IST

    A court in China sentences culprits of a global counterfeit syndicate to imprisonment ranging from 5 years to 6 1/2 years

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In a major boost to its antipiracy campaign, a court in southern China sentenced 11 main culprits in a counterfeit racket involving Microsoft products on Wednesday to imprisonment ranging from 17 months to six and half years. 


 


The world's largest software counterfeiting syndicate was busted by Microsoft with the joint effort of Federal Bureau of Investigation and Chinese authorities in July 2007.  Twenty-five people were arrested in China and several manufacturing facilities were dismantled.


 


The counterfeit goods included Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office release, Microsoft Office 2003, Windows XP and Windows Server and were produced in eight languages: Croatian, Dutch, English, German, Italian, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish. The counterfeits were sold over the internet and shipped from China to countries across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, the United States and Canada.


 


Applauding the sentence, Microsoft said in a statement that they were the stiffest sentences ever handed down in this type of Chinese copyright infringement case. "This case is a testament to the importance of Microsoft s commitment to close collaboration with government bodies and local law enforcement agencies around the world to bring these criminals to justice, wherever they may be, said David Finn, associate general counsel for Worldwide Anti-Piracy and Anti-Counterfeiting at Microsoft.


 


Microsoft attributed the success of its investigation to tens of thousands of customers using its antipiracy Windows Genuine Advantage tool to identify the software they were using as fake. In addition, more than 100 Microsoft resellers played a key part in helping to trace the counterfeit software and provided physical evidence critical to building the case, such as e-mail messages, invoices and payment slips.


 


The antipiracy team had been tracking the syndicate since 2001.


 


Christophe Zimmermann, the coordinator of the fight against counterfeiting and piracy at the World Customs Organization, said,  The action today by the court in China sends a very clear message to counterfeiters that governments around the world are serious about stopping this form of criminality and are willing to step forward to protect their citizens from the harm caused by counterfeit goods.

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Discussion Board
(6) Comments
msramkrish
,Pune, on Sep 28, 2010 04:53 AM
Selling any software at reasonable price itself will bring the piracy down. Main cause for piracy is the affordability. Selling in volumes at a cheaper and affordable price alone can make this menace out. Unethical exorbidant prices, cornering customers making them keep buying new versions, letting down the owners of existing versions without upgrade path at reasonable price difference, lack of provision for direct selling at cheaper price, selling buggy software which is no different from a pirated copy are some of the factors leading to Piration. Instead of spending money on anti piration tools and measures why not Microsoft pass that expenses to reduce the price of its software from greedy price to reasonable ethical price. This itself will wade off piration to a larger extent After all the development is one time investment, later the manufacturing is only the media cost. Being meaningful and reasonable will sure make others to follow. Hope Microsoft understands this very basic!!!
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chinasucks
,beijing, on Jul 14, 2010 09:42 PM
china is hometown of piracy.
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Kaushik
,Delhi, on Jan 02, 2009 06:18 PM
Sad - 11 people go to jail for 5-6.5 years to protect the money of bill gates and some of his company's high officials, which they are getting by selling software coded by programmers (who don't get a share of the royalty) to the third world at first world prices.
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jack
,inthebeanstalk, on Jan 04, 2009 03:55 PM
true true...very true !!!
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John
,Naperville, IL, on Apr 15, 2009 03:27 PM
Don't forget that Microsoft stockholder's investments are protected as well. I am a programmer. I get paid by my clients for my services. When I was an employee, I got paid for my time. The programmers that write the code for Microsoft are paid for their time regardless of where they live. Profits and royalties are for people who own the company because they take the risks. There is nothing sad about thieves going to prison for stealing. I could say it is sad that american companies are using third world coders instead of putting Americans to work, but that is business. I have to be smarter to continue to have work here in America. Again, that is the way it works. Get over it!
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Rob
,Orlando, on Jan 27, 2009 08:58 PM
It is amazing that Microsoft sees that "stopping this form of criminality" is protecting "citizens from the harm caused by counterfeit goods." Everyday citizens are not being harmed, Microsoft is not earning money on this software, simply put.
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