Software Pirate Found Guilty of Stealing $100 Million in Goods
Xiang Li stole from Microsoft, Oracle and Agilent Technologies.
Chinese national Xiang Li has pled guilty in U.S. federal court to pirating, cracking and selling software worth more than $100 million.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security arrested Li during June of 2011 after agents discovered he was leading a pirating ring that sold stolen software on the internet.
The software, which was predominately utilized by defense, space, and engineering companies, belonged to several technology firms including Microsoft, Oracle, Rockwell Automation, Agilent Technologies, Siemens, among hundreds of others.
"Li thought he was safe from the long arm of U.S. law enforcement, hiding halfway around the world in cyberspace anonymity. He was sorely mistaken," U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Director John Morton had said during 2012. "Whether in China or cyberspace, this arrest is proof that Homeland Security Investigations and our partners at the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center are committed to identifying, infiltrating and disrupting these criminal enterprises wherever they exist."
Li stole the software from around 200 U.S. manufacturers, subsequently selling them in 61 different countries on websites owned by the software pirate, including crack99.com. He ran the piracy ring from 2008 to 2011.
Although he had sold it for considerably less, prosecutors said the retail value of what Li stole equaled more than $100 million. U.S. agents worked undercover for 18 months in order to catch Li; they purchased thousands of dollars of software from him, which had an equivalent value of $150,000.
Under the premise of a joint illegal business venture, agents arrested Li by arranging to meet with him in the island of Saipan. He was initially charged with 46 criminal counts; however, he ultimately plead guilty to two single counts of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright violations and wire fraud.
Either way, Li, who is scheduled to be sentenced on May 3, faces up to 20 years in federal prison, as well as a $500,000 fine. Elsewhere, an illegal file-sharer in the U.S. was recently handed a record prison sentence: 5 years.
Fixed for ya there
Enterprise software and CAD/Engineering software is extremely expensive. They often have embedded 'phone home' code that is used to track exactly how many people are using unauthorized copies.
This is not an article about 15 year old kids playing pirated copies of Skyrim (although I still say that is wrong), this is an article about companies using software to enrich themselves without paying for it.
Companies like those mentioned in the article spend millions of dollars optimizing and fine tuning software for very small and specific markets and customer use cases. When others profit from that without paying for it, it has a very real impact on their bottom line.
Fixed for ya there
I understand they're protecting your idea and you cannot just have it without paying legally for it - but threatening 20 years in prison over this petty shit?
Why do they stop there - why not just shoot him? Kick down the door and put a .44 to his head. I think the mercy killing is more humane than going to prison for 20 years.
Enterprise software and CAD/Engineering software is extremely expensive. They often have embedded 'phone home' code that is used to track exactly how many people are using unauthorized copies.
This is not an article about 15 year old kids playing pirated copies of Skyrim (although I still say that is wrong), this is an article about companies using software to enrich themselves without paying for it.
Companies like those mentioned in the article spend millions of dollars optimizing and fine tuning software for very small and specific markets and customer use cases. When others profit from that without paying for it, it has a very real impact on their bottom line.
Development effort required to create the software.
You think programmers are cheap? Haha, sadly no.
Currently in China, there is relatively little innovation within the manufacturing and software industry.
Why?
Because almost all of the businesses' core practice is to simply copy their competitors. The copying is so rampant that many of them refuse to allow their customers to tour their facilities, and often treat all of their customers as a move by the rivals to steal their info.
If that's what some people want in the US, then I sure hope they don't mind a stagnant development in the software industry.
Yeah I would hate to have stagnation in our software industry because our programmers are too lazy to do the work themselves when they can simple copy the code and use it elseware.
Oh wait, they do that with PC ports from consoles right???
You think programmers are cheap? Haha, sadly no."
You think the programmers would have seen any increase in their pay had all of this software been purchased legally? Haha, sadly no.
Stealing implies it is lost and cannot be sold, copying leaves the original and makes a duplicate, I don't get how people find this so hard to understand. they can still sell their product, nobody is stopping you from buying it from them, they didn't lose any keys, they didn't lose any part of their code, they lost the money to use their code
reading the article, it looks like he got his hands on pro grade software and was selling bootlegs to other people who really use it, not like people who get photoshop and release it to a consumer market who wont pay the 600+ for a commercial grade license.
the moment he sold the coppies, is the moment that stealing the money is used in real terms.
you are looking at it from the point of view of someone who downloaded a torrent, this guy was actually SELLING the software.
because there are many cases where piracy is proven to promote sales, and actually bring in more revenue, and every time someone is punished for it, you may have gotten off easier if you rape and murder a baby on national tv.
and the reason that professional software is seen as an even more ok target is companies like adobe that become industry standard, not because they are the best, but because they are so widely pirated that everyone knows how to use it, so businesses buy the license, seriously, adobe owes all its success in photoshop and many other areas exclusively to piracy.
we should be outraged by that, but seriously, we all know who owns our government at this point, i would honestly be surprised if they did something that truly warrants the title of department of homeland security.
if you are talking about codeing alone, ill give it to you, but if you are talking graphics... a AAA game costs 50 million to make because of how good graphics are at this point, i really dont want prices to go up further because of graphics.
yea yea, we all know that, none of us are that stupid at that point. however look at it this way, i dont believe in religion at all, yet i still use biblical words when i swear, not because i believe it makes them worse or stronger or even mocking way, but because they are the words that are so in grained in me to use in those situations.
anyone on this site knows piracy =/= stealing, but stealing is still the first word that comes to mind when you get something for free you normally cant get for free.