spacegrass points us to an article on the Reuters.com website. A Los Angeles woman was sentenced to nine years in prison and on top of that she's been ordered to pay $11 million in restitution for her role in one of the largest counterfeit software cases in U.S. history:
The sentence imposed on 52-year-old Lisa Chen by Superior Court Judge Ronni MacLaren was the longest prison term for a first-time conviction on software piracy, prosecutors said. |
"I'm pleased that such a significant loss has been appropriately punished," Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Fairtlough said. "This sentence sends a message that law enforcement will vigorously investigate and prosecute thefts of intellectual property."
Chen was one of four people arrested in November of 2001 as part of a ring that prosecutors said imported nearly $98 million in counterfeit computer products and software from Asia, including knockoffs of Microsoft Corp.'s MSFT.O Windows XP, Windows 2000 NT and Microsoft Office 2000 Pro software, along with manuals, user license agreements and other materials.
Well if you're importing these huge amounts of illegal software into a country something is bound to go wrong sooner or later. Pat Mueller, a senior investigator for Microsoft, added a nice comment to the article: "It is very difficult to come up with a counterfeit product that is as good as we saw here".
Source: Reuters
