Saturday - August 26, 2006

Yo-Ho-Ho And A Bottle Of Rum

I’m glad they caught this guy and stopped his operation ... and not because of what you might think. I’m against software piracy but I’m even more against spam and this cat and others of his ilk have been spamming me for years to buy their cheap ripoffs. Personally, I also think it’s a crime for Microsoft and others to sell their buggy software at the high prices they charge also.

This guy doesn’t sound like a very smart pirate mainly because he chose to operate inside the US. The FBI was bound to nab him sooner or later. Most software pirating is done in China, Singapore and the Far East. Russia is fast becoming the leader in software pirating though. All of these pirates are safely out of reach of the FBI so they continue to operate.

My feeling is that if Microsoft, Adobe, Symantec, etc. would just do more thorough testing on their software and ship it to stores with fewer bugs and security holes - at a reasonable price, there would be no market for pirates. As it is, consumers are forced to pay outrageous prices for software that must be continuously patched and upgraded (sometimes for an extra fee - but that’s another story for another post) to keep it functioning. That is a crime.

Software piracy is illegal and rightly so. Bad business practices on the part of software manufacturers should also be a crime. Bill Gates became a gazillionaire selling the shoddiest merchandise ever invented and continues to do so. There are others in the computer software industry just as guilty. Perhaps a little jail time for them might encourage them to mend their ways ... and eliminate piracy at the source.

Florida Man Gets Six Years in Prison For Software Piracy
_{(WASHINGTON POST) - Saturday, August 26, 2006}

The owner of a major software piracy Web site was sentenced to six years in prison yesterday, one of the longest jail terms ever imposed for the growing crime of stealing copyrighted computer products, prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria also ordered Danny Ferrer, 37, to pay restitution of more than $4.1 million and to forfeit a wide variety of luxury goods he bought with millions of dollars in proceeds. They included three airplanes; a helicopter; and numerous cars, including a 1992 Lamborghini, a 2005 Hummer and two 2005 Chevrolet Corvettes.

Starting in 2002, Ferrer and a number of co-conspirators operated http://www.buysusa.com/ , which sold at huge discounts copies of software products copyrighted by such companies as Adobe Systems Inc., Autodesk Inc. and Macromedia Inc. The total loss to owners of the computer products was nearly $20 million, prosecutors said.

The sentencing in U.S. District Court was the latest step in a Justice Department crackdown against Internet pirates who distribute copyrighted software, movies, games and other products. “Modern-day pirates ought to expect modern-day penalties,” said U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg, who added that the sentence “sends a strong message to those who pilfer the intellectual property of others.”

Nina Ginsburg, a lawyer for Ferrer, said the scheme started because he couldn’t pay the medical bills from his wife’s long-term illness. “That’s not an excuse,” said Ginsburg, who said Ferrer has a “huge amount of remorse” and has agreed to appear in business-group-sponsored public service announcements condemning software piracy.

One such group, the Business Software Alliance, brought the case to the FBI’s attention. An undercover agent then purchased software from Ferrer’s Web site. Ferrer lives in Lakeland, Fla., but the software was mailed to Northern Virginia, which is why the case was prosecuted there. Ferrer pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy and criminal copyright infringement.

- More on the story at WAPO ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/26/2006 at 08:56 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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