Florida Man Gets Six Years for Piracy
A Florida man has received a six-year prison sentence after being convicted of conspiracy and copyright infringement charges related to the sale of pirated software. In addition to the jail term, he has also been mandated to pay $4.1 million in restitution.
Through his Web site BuysUSA.com, Danny Ferrer of Lakeland, Fla. sold pirated copies of software from Adobe, AutoDesk and Macromedia. Through the money made on the site, Ferrer was able to buy airplanes, a fighter jet simulator, and numerous cars. In order to repay the companies affected, Ferrer has been ordered to sell his assets.
U.S. District Court Judge T.S. Ellis III gave the stiff sentence out of a desire to deter others from attempting to do what Ferrer did. While Ferrer claims he initially started selling the pirated copies out of a desire to pay for medical bills for his wife, he did admit to becoming greedy once the business became successful.
BuysUSA operated from 2002 to 2005, and the software sold was fairly indistinguishable to that of authentic software. However, Ferrer sold the software at a discount, and it is estimated that the companies lost $20 million as a result of the operation.
John Wolfe, director of Internet enforcement for the Business Software Alliance, an industry trade organization, applauded the decision, saying Ferrer's actions harmed the market and consumers.
"We encourage consumers to be aware of the risks involved with buying 3rd party software on the Internet and hope that the increased attention to this problem by law enforcement agencies will send the message that software piracy is a crime that can result in very serious consequences," he said.
Companies like Microsoft have taken a proactive stance on piracy, through programs like Windows Genuine Advantage. WGA notifies users if they are using a counterfeit version of Windows.
Users who may have unknowingly purchased counterfeit software would be eligible for a free genuine copy at no cost as long as they fill out a piracy report as well as provide proof of purchase and surrender the counterfeit CDs. Microsoft has used such reports to go after counterfeiters.