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Symantec Harpoons Software Pirate For $1 Million
John Stith
Staff Writer
2005-09-29
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Top Internet security firm Symantec secured $1 million in restitution from a software piracy operation based in Houston, Texas. Li Chen pled guilty to one count of trademark infringement and agreed to the restitution as part of the plea bargain.
 | | Symantec Goes After The Big Piracy Fish |  |
Editor's Note: Software piracy continues to spread throughout the world. Symantec got in a blog but in reality it's a drop in the bucket. What do you think of the multibillion dollar industry of software piracy? Talk about it on the Security Forum at WebProWorld.
The case was a team effort between the FBI and the Houston Police Dept., took a year to investigate and is being prosecuted by the Harris County District Attorney's office. Symantec said the investigation and was triggered by research Symantec and other software companies did into Chen's activities.
"Symantec is committed to vigorously battling software piracy and protecting the interests of our customers. This case was helped significantly by customers who sent samples of counterfeit software to Symantec's Brand Protection Task Force," said William Baird, Symantec's Global Investigations manager.
"In addition, we'd like to thank the law enforcement authorities in Houston. Their efforts are a strong demonstration that there are serious criminal penalties to be paid for trafficking pirated software. The successful prosecution of this case has made a significant impact on constricting the supply of counterfeit Symantec software available in North America."
The search warrant was served back in November of 2004 and authorities found more than 5100 pieces of counterfeit Symantec software. They seized the units from Chen's Microsource International. They also grabbed documents covering April 2002 through October 2004, and Symantec claimed these documents say Chen sold counterfeit product worth over $9.9 million.
This is one in a line of recent wins by Symantec combating software piracy. Symantec has recovered more than $19.5 million in damages from various entities in the last two years.
Microsoft also received a somewhat smaller $95,000 but Microsoft has also done well recently against pirates, filing suit against a number of companies just a couple of weeks ago.
In a recent interview in the Miami-Herald, Orlando Ayala, Microsoft's senior vice president for small and midmarket solutions and partners, said in the last 12 months federal authorities have seized 192,000 units of pirated Microsoft sofrware, which represented $134 million
Recent studies say software piracy is a growing industry and will continue to grow. The Business Software Alliance said in a study release in May that the software piracy industry would hit the $200 billion mark in the next five years.
The software piracy industry continues to grow with $6.6 billion lost in revenue in the U.S. alone last year. China lost $3.6 billion. Unfortunately for software companies, as long as there is a profit motive in the piracy, it will continue.
About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
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