Piracy
A Florida man who sold a console holding 76 pirated games has been sentenced to 15 months prison time

Pirated games businessman jailed for 15 months

Sanctions for business piracy on the increase

Iain Thomson in San Francisco

A man who set up a business selling pirated games on consoles has been jailed for 15 months and fined $415,900.

Kifah Maswadi, age 24, of Oakland, Florida, had been selling a handheld gaming console called Power Player, which is closely modeled on the Nintendo Entertainment System. The devices held 76 pirated games, chiefly Nintendo titles.

Advertisement

Maswadi pleaded guilty to one count of copyright infringement and was sentenced by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. He was also sentenced to three years of probation and 50 hours of community service, including public education about criminal copyright infringement.

The case highlights the difference in sentencing policy between those who pirate for themselves and those who try and make a business out of it. Typically the latter case involves jail time where as private individuals generally receive fines.

The Department of Justice, which is currently cracking down on piracy, estimated that Maswadi made more than $390,000 from his business activities. The fine was an attempt to recoup those profits and add a fine as well.

Nevertheless the fines are insignificant in comparison to Nintendo’s lost revenue. Maswadi sold more than 8,000 of the consoles, or more than 600,000 games, valuing each game at less than a dollar.

However, such fines could get much higher and their scope broadened under the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

Some ACTA proposals suggest such sentences will not only be passed to businesses that exist just to sell pirated goods but also on legitimate businesses that may accidentally be carrying such material.

  • Have your say
  • Send to a friend
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Share

Do you agree?

Related whitepapers

Related jobs

Most watched

Xperia X1

Video Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

First Looks Editor Ian Williams gets hands on with the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

iPhone

Video Review: iPhone 3GS

We put Apple's latest iPhone through its paces

IT white papers

Search white papers

Top categories

Poll

Poll: Summer smartphones

Poll: Summer smartphones

Which smartphone will you be taking to the beach this summer?

View poll results

Advertisement

Advertisement

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Spotlight

HTC Hero

Hands on with the HTC Hero

V3.co.uk gets a walk through of the Hero, which includes...

NetGear ReadyNAS NVX

Review: NetGear ReadyNAS NVX

NetGear's four-bay compact network-attached storage gets a serious speed boost

AMD

AMD adds to six-core Opteron line up

New HE processors promise even lower power consumption

Adobe Systems

Adobe launches ColdFusion 9 and ColdFusion Builder

Firm promises enhanced developer productivity

Primary Navigation