China Convicts Microsoft Pirate Ring

By: Rob Adams
Staff Writer
Published: Jan 4, 2009

The Chinese government has convicted a ring of Microsoft pirate software leaders to six and a half years in prison. The counterfeiters made $2 billion selling fake software.

Eleven people were convicted in China on Wednesday for selling illegal copies of Microsoft Corp software. The ring leaders of the pirate group were sentenced up to six and a half years in prison. Microsoft said the conviction was a milestone in law enforcement between China and the United States.

"Microsoft greatly appreciates the work of China's PSB and the FBI in taking strong enforcement action against this global software counterfeiting syndicate," David Finn, associate general counsel for Worldwide Anti-Piracy and Anti-Counterfeiting at Microsoft, said in a statement.

The pirate software ring was accused of selling illegal copies if various Microsoft software products. The group made over $2 billion in illegal sales spanning across 36 countries. Overall, the counterfeiters sold products from 19 different software companies.

A Chinese court in Shenzhen delivered the stiffest jail sentence on intellectual property rights violations. Other products sold were electronics, clothing, and fashion items. Most of the fake products were distributed from China to other places around the world.