US officials make biggest ever piracy bust

Potential loss to artists and businesses runs to 'millions of dollars'

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.