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Chinese police busted $500m illegal software
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Chinese police have busted up two criminal organizations and seized pirated software worth half a billion dollars, the culmination of two years of work with the FBI, officials from both countries said yesterday. The gangs pirated Microsoft Corp.Symantec Corp. software and sold it around the world, including in the United States, said Gao Feng, of China’s Ministry of Public Security. Gao said police arrested 25 people and seized property worth about $8 million. Chinese police also confiscated counterfeit software with an estimated retail value of $500 million, according to an FBI statement.
Gao said police discovered in 2005 that the Chinese gangs were colluding with suspects in the United States and notified the FBI’s Beijing office. China has long been the world’s leading source of illegally copied goods, including designer clothes, movies, and music. The country has been under pressure to crack down. The Business Software Alliance, a trade group, said software counterfeiting in China has dropped in recent years. But the group says global piracy took a $40 billion bite out of worldwide software revenue in 2006. According to the FBI, Chinese police arrested 11 people in Shanghai. In Shenzhen, a boomtown just over the border from Hong Kong, 14 people were arrested for making fake Microsoft programs. |
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Published on 10-09-2007 |
