14 DAY TRIAL // As any criminal act, software piracy is also judged by its size. In this way, we can talk about petty pirating acts happening at the corner of the street or about the real pirate production lines. A few days ago, the American authorities have succeeded to convict three Californians, accused of being involved in the biggest case of CD counterfeiting.
The size of the output is quite impressive, the evidence showing that three pirates from Union City and Fremont (California) were making over 325,000 illegal copies of copyright protected CDs containing both multimedia and software applications.
The favorite titles consisted of Latin American artists and of Symantec's security solutions. If we come to think about their names (Ye Teng Wen, 29, Hao He, 30 and Yaobin Zhai, 33), their inclination towards Latin American music is somehow peculiar.
Still, the quality of the pirated CDs was outstanding, and the three masterminds behind the entire operation were even duplicating the authenticity labels glued to the CDs' cases and the FBI warning regarding piracy: "Unauthorized copying is punishable under federal law".
For now, the three accused were released on bail, but they are liable to heavy sentences in a federal prison. The first hearing is scheduled for October 27.