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11 members of software piracy ring sent to jail
Source: Xinhua |
January 5, 2009, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A CHINESE court has jailed 11 people for pirating Microsoft products. The case involving the American software firm amounted to a serious crime, the court said in a statement.
"The three primary offenders in this case violated copyright in a very serious way," said the Futian District People's Court in the southern city of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province.
Using legal software, the 11 made counterfeit copies worth 305.65 million yuan (US$44.8 million), the statement said.
According to the court, Wang Wenhua, Zhang Da'an and Che Tingfeng organized a group to use sophisticated equipment to replicate Windows and Office software as well as holograms of Microsoft's Certificate of Authenticity.
They sold the fake software not only in China, but also online to other countries and regions such as the United States, Canada, Germany and Israel.
The ring was found to have made illicit gains of 1.9 million yuan, said the statement.
On December 31 last year, Wang was sentenced to six and a half years in prison and fined 1.5 million yuan.
China's Criminal Law defines "especially grave violations of copyright" as those involving 2,500 or more copies. Violators could be sentenced to three to seven years in jail.
Suspects in similar cases in the US face up to five years in prison.
Zhang and Che were sentenced to five years and three and a half years in jail, respectively, with fines of 400,000 yuan and 800,000 yuan.
The eight other offenders were jailed for 18 months to three and a half years.
"Two of the 11 convicted have appealed," said a Futian court official. The others have 10 days to appeal their verdicts.
In an official statement from its Washington-based headquarters shortly after the sentencing, Microsoft said it "greatly appreciates" the work done in China in "taking strong enforcement action against a global software counterfeiting syndicate."
"Thanks to the actions of the Chinese government, we have seen a significant improvement in the environment for intellectual property rights in China," Microsoft China's Vice President Fengming Liu said in the statement.
"The three primary offenders in this case violated copyright in a very serious way," said the Futian District People's Court in the southern city of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province.
Using legal software, the 11 made counterfeit copies worth 305.65 million yuan (US$44.8 million), the statement said.
According to the court, Wang Wenhua, Zhang Da'an and Che Tingfeng organized a group to use sophisticated equipment to replicate Windows and Office software as well as holograms of Microsoft's Certificate of Authenticity.
They sold the fake software not only in China, but also online to other countries and regions such as the United States, Canada, Germany and Israel.
The ring was found to have made illicit gains of 1.9 million yuan, said the statement.
On December 31 last year, Wang was sentenced to six and a half years in prison and fined 1.5 million yuan.
China's Criminal Law defines "especially grave violations of copyright" as those involving 2,500 or more copies. Violators could be sentenced to three to seven years in jail.
Suspects in similar cases in the US face up to five years in prison.
Zhang and Che were sentenced to five years and three and a half years in jail, respectively, with fines of 400,000 yuan and 800,000 yuan.
The eight other offenders were jailed for 18 months to three and a half years.
"Two of the 11 convicted have appealed," said a Futian court official. The others have 10 days to appeal their verdicts.
In an official statement from its Washington-based headquarters shortly after the sentencing, Microsoft said it "greatly appreciates" the work done in China in "taking strong enforcement action against a global software counterfeiting syndicate."
"Thanks to the actions of the Chinese government, we have seen a significant improvement in the environment for intellectual property rights in China," Microsoft China's Vice President Fengming Liu said in the statement.
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