A Chinese court has convicted 11 people involved in a massive piracy ring that, if it were a legitimate business, would have been a significant retail outlet in its own right — raking in more than $2 billion for selling counterfeit software.
The Futian People’s Court handed down sentences on Tuesday ranging from 1.5 years to 6.5 years in prison, including the longest sentences handed down in China’s history for this type of crime.
The 11 sentenced had been arrested by Chinese authorities in July 2007, following an investigation led by the FBI and China’s Public Security Bureau (PSB).
The scale of the criminals’ operation had been huge, with counterfeit software found in 36 countries on five continents. Investigators found fake but high-quality versions of 19 of Microsoft’s most popular products, produced in at least 11 languages.
Source: Internet News
