11 pirates, considered the “world’s biggest” software pirates, have been sentenced to jail time today by the Futian People’s Court in Shenzhen, China.
The group were ‘ringleaders’ in a counterfeiting syndicate that specialized in ‘high-quality’ fake Microsoft software. It is estimated that the pirates manufactured over $2 billion USD worth of counterfeits.
The sentences, the longest ever for intellectual property crimes in China, ranged from 1 year to 6.5.
The counterfeits were found in 36 separate countries on five continents and were produced in at least 11 languages.
The Chinese Public Security Bureau (PSB) was responsible for tracking down the pirates and the bureau claims “tens of thousands” of buyers verified the software was fake using Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage.
Result for: five continents
Apple has once again announced that it is expanding its iPhone network to new markets, this time to new markets in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Recently the company announced deals for distribution in Italy, Latin America and Australia and India and there still seem to be deals in the works for the popular device.
Orange the cell phone carrier said it did not want to divulge too much but did say the countries part of the new distribution deal are Belgium, Egypt, Poland, Switzerland, Austria, the Dominican Republic, Jordan, Romania, Slovakia, Senegal, Cameroon, Botswana, Madagascar, Mali, Reunion, Kenya and Mauritius.
Orange, a subsidiary of France Telecom has 172 million registered customers over five continents and says that over 120 million are Orange customers.
Analysts have expressed doubt that the iPhone will sell well in Africa and many feel it is a risky move to distribute there. The average income of individuals in many African nations is significantly lower then say, people in European nations and the phone is sometimes even too expensive for those individuals.
