A Chinese court has issued tough sentences to members of a huge software counterfeiting ring, which distributed more than US$2 billion in fake Microsoft goods, the company said.
The Shenzhen court on Wednesday sentenced 11 people to jail terms of up to six-and-a-half years for making high-quality counterfeit software that was sold in 36 countries, Microsoft said in a statement.
The sentences were the “stiffest ever meted out for intellectual property rights violations in China,” said a report on the verdicts by the popular Chinese Internet portal Sina.com.
The illegal syndicate, based in Guangdong Province, pirated versions of 19 of the company’s most popular products in at least 11 languages, Microsoft said in its statement posted on Wednesday.
Microsoft described the group as the world’s biggest software counterfeiting syndicate.
The Futian People’s Court in Shenzhen could not be reached for comment yesterday, which was a national holiday in China.
Ringleaders were arrested in July 2007 by the Public Security Bureau (PSB) after a joint investigation with the FBI.
US officials have called the joint effort a milestone in law enforcement cooperation between the two sides and Microsoft thanked them.
“Microsoft greatly appreciates the work of China’s PSB and the FBI in taking strong enforcement action against this global software counterfeiting syndicate,” David Finn, a top Microsoft anti-piracy official, said in the statement.
Copyright counterfeiting is rampant in China and a constant irritant in trade ties with the US.
Counterfeit versions of popular foreign movies, brand-name fashions and other products continue to be sold openly in China.
Washington filed a case in April 2007 at the WTO over widespread copyright piracy in China, a practice that US companies say deprives them of billions of dollars in sales each year.
In November, Chinese Assistant Commerce Minister Chong Quan (崇泉) told US industry and government officials at a gathering in Beijing that Washington must take into account its difficulties as a developing country in tackling copyright breaches.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’