Potential loss to artists and businesses runs to 'millions of dollars'
US officials make biggest ever piracy bust
/v3-uk/news/1986530/us-officials-biggest-piracy-bust
13 Oct 2005, Iain Thomson , V3
US authorities have confirmed that three men behind the largest piracy ring yet found have been indicted.
Ye Teng Wen, Hao He and Yaobin Zhai, all from California, are accused of pirating 325,000 copyrighted CDs and other software.
US Attorney Kevin Ryan said: "The allegations of massive piracy of music and software reflect the potential loss of millions of dollars to the artists and businesses which legitimately own the copyrights on these works.
"These individuals are charged with affixing counterfeit labels on CDs to create the appearance of legitimacy, including the FBI Anti-Piracy Warning that stated 'Unauthorized copying is punishable under Federal law'."
According to the affidavits in support of the criminal complaints, Wen and He have been involved in large-scale replication of pirated music and software, including songs by numerous Latin artists as well as antivirus software manufactured by Symantec.
The three are also charged with possessing over 2,000 stampers, machines that embed audio and video information onto new optical discs.
The Recording Industry Association of America estimates that the conservative value of one infringing music stamper is $25,000.
The trio will face trial shortly and could receive sentences of five years' imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and three years' supervised release.
© Incisive Media Investments Limited 2010, Published by Incisive Financial Publishing Limited, Haymarket House, 28-29 Haymarket, London SW1Y 4RX, are companies registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 04252091 & 04252093
Do you agree?
bs
Although I am against anyone making money off of pirated software, the actual net losses of the software companies is = 0. They did not actually cost the companies any money at all. Thats like saying stores loose money from people looking at things and not buying them. Software companies like abobe charging $500+ for a essentailly a cdrom should expect to be stolen from.
Posted by Richie, 16 Oct 2005
I think the fine is too low
I think the fine is too low because they caused businesses to lose huge amount of profits.
Posted by Dean, 13 Oct 2005
Punishment
If a person downloading already comprmised software get s what they got a couple years ago, wouldnt it seen these guys are getting off light. They should be treated like Mitnik.
Posted by Steve, 14 Oct 2005