EBay seller sentenced for software piracy
Monday, October 26, 2009
A federal judge has sentenced a Virginia man to more than three years in prison for selling roughly $1 million worth of pirated software on eBay, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Gregory William Fair, 46, was sentenced to 41 months in prison for selling counterfeit computer software through multiple eBay accounts between 2001 and 2007. He was ordered to pay restitution of $743,098 and forfeited $144,000 in cash and three vehicles purchased with the proceeds from the scam.
The DOJ said Fair pleaded guilty on April 16, 2009, to one count of criminal copyright infringement and one count of mail fraud for selling pirated business software, in which he admitted to the scheme to defraud customers and the software makers.
Software companies like Microsoft lose billions of dollars annually due to software piracy. Microsoft says pirated versions of its products contain the potential for infection by malware and do not have the same network security protections of legitimate products.
The DOJ said it is undertaking a campaign to crack down on sales of pirated software online, which has resulted in 39 convictions for fraud.
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