Two brothers in the US have been given lengthy jail terms for selling large
amounts of pirated computer software.
A federal court in Alexandria, Virginia sentenced Maurice Robberson, 48, to
three years in prison and ordered him to pay $855,917 in restitution.
His brother Thomas Robberson, 55, was sentenced to 30 months in prison and
ordered to pay $151,488 in restitution.
Maurice Robberson pleaded guilty to conspiracy and felony copyright
infringement, while his brother Thomas Robberson pleaded guilty to a single
count of felony copyright infringement.
Thomas Robberson grossed more than $150,000 selling software with a retail
value of nearly $1m by operating Bestvalueshoppe.com and TheDealDepot.net.
Maurice Robberson grossed more than $855,000 selling software with a retail
value of nearly $5.6m through CDsalesUSA.com and AmericanSoftwareSales.com. Both
brothers have agreed to forfeit all proceeds from the illegal businesses.
"People who steal the intellectual property of others for their personal
financial gain, while defrauding consumers who think they are buying legitimate
products, will be punished for their crimes, as today's sentences prove," said
Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher.
"The prosecution of these and other defendants related to this multi-year
investigation of internet piracy software operations would not have been
possible without the combined efforts of the
US
Department of Justice, the
US
Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia and the
FBI."
US Attorney Chuck Rosenberg added: "Software piracy on the internet is a
problem that law enforcement must address. These cases show that federal
investigators and prosecutors can and will bring intellectual property thieves
to justice."
Two others who conspired with Maurice Robberson to commit copyright
infringement have already been sentenced.
Danny Ferrer, 39, was given 72 months for selling more than $4m in pirated
software with a retail value of nearly $20m on Buysusa.com.
Alton Lee Grooms, 56, who helped initiate some of the illegal businesses and
profited by more than $150,000, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison
after cooperating with the investigation.
The men ran businesses selling counterfeit software from late 2002 to October
2005 from companies such as
Adobe,
Autodesk
and
Macromedia.
The counterfeit items were manufactured by members of the conspiracy and
included labels that featured trademarks and service marks of the legitimate
software companies.
After receiving complaints from software copyright holders about Buysusa.com,
an undercover FBI agent made a number of purchases. Further investigation
revealed an array of related websites.
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