Chinese man pleads guilty to selling stolen US software
January 9, 2013, Wednesday
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IN a case US officials say is the first of its kind, a Chinese businessman pled guilty on Monday to selling stolen American software used in defense, space technology and engineering - programs prosecutors said had a retail value of more than US$100 million.
The software was stolen from about 200 American manufacturers and sold to 325 black market buyers in about 60 countries between 2008 and 2011, prosecutors said. US buyers in 28 states included a NASA engineer and the chief scientist for a defense and law-enforcement contractor, prosecutors said.
Corporate victims in the case included Microsoft, Oracle, Rockwell Automation, Agilent Technologies, Siemens, Delcam, Altera Corp and SAP, a government spokesman said.
US officials and the Chinese man's lawyer, Chen Mingli, said the case was the first in which a businessman involved in pirating industrial software had been lured from China by agents promising a business deal and arrested.
The businessman, Li Xiang, of Chengdu, was arrested in June 2011 during an undercover sting by US Department of Homeland Security agents on the Pacific island of Saipan, an American territory near Guam.
Li, 36, originally charged in a 46-count indictment, pled guilty to single counts of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright violations and wire fraud.
"I want to tell the court that what I did was wrong and illegal and I want to say I'm sorry," Li told US District Judge Leonard Stark during a 90-minute hearing. Li spoke through a translator. Li told the judge he disputed the value put on the programs. After the hearing, his lawyer said Li plans to present his own estimate at sentencing, which is set for May 3.
In recent years, US officials have targeted software pirates overseas but bringing them to the United States has proved difficult.
In one of the largest copyright cases, US prosecutors last year charged seven people, including Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, with racketeering conspiracy and copyright violations. The indictment alleges that Dotcom ran an organization that earned US$175 million selling an estimated US$500 billion worth of pirated movies, TV shows and other entertainment media. Dotcom is fighting extradition from New Zealand.
The Li case involves sophisticated business software, not entertainment software, and thus small quantities of higher-priced products.
At one point, Crack99.com and Li's other sites offered more than 2,000 pirated software titles, prosecutors said.
Li trolled black market Internet forums in search of hacked software, and people with the know-how to crack the passwords needed to run the program. Then he advertised them for sale on his websites, officials said.
The software was stolen from about 200 American manufacturers and sold to 325 black market buyers in about 60 countries between 2008 and 2011, prosecutors said. US buyers in 28 states included a NASA engineer and the chief scientist for a defense and law-enforcement contractor, prosecutors said.
Corporate victims in the case included Microsoft, Oracle, Rockwell Automation, Agilent Technologies, Siemens, Delcam, Altera Corp and SAP, a government spokesman said.
US officials and the Chinese man's lawyer, Chen Mingli, said the case was the first in which a businessman involved in pirating industrial software had been lured from China by agents promising a business deal and arrested.
The businessman, Li Xiang, of Chengdu, was arrested in June 2011 during an undercover sting by US Department of Homeland Security agents on the Pacific island of Saipan, an American territory near Guam.
Li, 36, originally charged in a 46-count indictment, pled guilty to single counts of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright violations and wire fraud.
"I want to tell the court that what I did was wrong and illegal and I want to say I'm sorry," Li told US District Judge Leonard Stark during a 90-minute hearing. Li spoke through a translator. Li told the judge he disputed the value put on the programs. After the hearing, his lawyer said Li plans to present his own estimate at sentencing, which is set for May 3.
In recent years, US officials have targeted software pirates overseas but bringing them to the United States has proved difficult.
In one of the largest copyright cases, US prosecutors last year charged seven people, including Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom, with racketeering conspiracy and copyright violations. The indictment alleges that Dotcom ran an organization that earned US$175 million selling an estimated US$500 billion worth of pirated movies, TV shows and other entertainment media. Dotcom is fighting extradition from New Zealand.
The Li case involves sophisticated business software, not entertainment software, and thus small quantities of higher-priced products.
At one point, Crack99.com and Li's other sites offered more than 2,000 pirated software titles, prosecutors said.
Li trolled black market Internet forums in search of hacked software, and people with the know-how to crack the passwords needed to run the program. Then he advertised them for sale on his websites, officials said.
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