RSSTwo Convicted of eBay Software Piracy
By Ed Oswald | Published June 26, 2007, 1:31 PM
Two individuals have plead guilty for their involvement in selling almost $6 million worth of software through the eBay auction site, the Justice Department said Monday.
In separate cases, Robert Koster of Jonesboro, Ark., and Yutaka Yamamoto of Pico Rivera, Calif. both plead guilty to selling counterfeit software produced by Rockwell Automation.
Each could face up to five years in prison, $250,000 in fines, and three years of supervised release. Another four defendants would join the two in November of this year to face sentencing together in front of U.S. District Court Judge J.P. Stadtmuller, the DOJ said.
Rockwell Automation produces factory management software. Together the two were responsible for nearly 200 auctions between September 2003 and September 2004, of which they made nearly $30,000 in profits from.
Seven others have been convicted as part of the same piracy ring to distribute the company's software, and it is said that the actual value of Rockwell software sold is about $30 million.
Six of the convictions originated in Wisconsin, while two were handed down in the Eastern District of Michigan and one from the Southern District of Indiana.
it's only 1 and 0's represented on a partially polarized substrate.
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|...and paintings are just colors on a canvas, and books are just letters on paper, and cars are just hunks of metal and fiberglass.
Your point?
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|Ummm...
ingram091 sounds like a software author...
You know Milkens put hundreds of Senior Citizens on cat food and crackers, He gets big money on his lecture circuit for how he did it.
db.
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|Did they get the highest or lowest bidder for their sentencing? (sorry, couldn't resist)
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|And this puts an end to software piracy worldwide forever ...
/sarcasm
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|They sold $30,000,000 worth of product for $30,000 which they had to split. I couldn't quit my day job for that amount of money. Heck, I'd make more money working at McDonald's. Interestingly, for this exact same reason is why drug deals live at home and have part time jobs. TED has a good program on that: "Why do crack dealers still live with their moms?"
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/29
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|yay! way to go us government! :D
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|Hell shoot them in the head for all I care. If they set that precedent people would be more aware of the extreams these people will go to in order to protect the bottom line.
Now I am not agreeing with these jerk holes... THAT is piracy!!! And has been the case since long before DMCA came to be. What is NOT piracy is the other such offenses that is otherwise known as fair use.
There is not one person that can bring to doubt that what these guys were doing was always illegal. Its not like they were doing it for themselves or for personal home use... they were making profit from piracy, and that has ALWAYS been a no no in any form.
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|yeah, lets shoot a man with a family in the head for copying some CD's and selling them on ebay....real smart......
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|Each could face up to five years in prison, $250,000 in fines, and three years of supervised release.
It should be, but isn't noted here that this is the maximum sentence that could be levied. It is very unlikely that they'll get anywhere near that by the time this is all said and done.
Just trying to ward off some of the "but that's worse than a serial killer would get!!" BS. It's hardly "life in prison" or "the chair".
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|If this is a first offense I'd bet that the punishment will be much less. Unless the government wants to make an example of them then all bets are off.
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