'World's biggest' Software Pirates Jailed

'World's biggest' Software Pirates Jailed

The Futian People's Court in Shenzhen, China, handed down sentences to 11 ringleaders of the world's largest software counterfeiting syndicate today.

The pirates were responsible for manufacturing and distributing more than an estimated $2 billion (£1.4 billion) worth of 'high-quality' counterfeit Microsoft software.



Their sentences, which ranged from a year and a half to 6.5 years, are the longest ever handed down for intellectual property crimes in China.

The pirates were tracked down by the Chinese Public Security Bureau (PSB) and by Microsoft itself. It claims that 'tens of thousands' of people used Microsoft's anti-piracy technology in Windows Genuine Advantage to identify the software they were using as fake.