Four arrested in MS piracy case

[lynchmob]

10 million? Is that what the pirates would have made or what MS would have made?
Wouldnt have been many copies if value is estimated by MS.
lynch

[cerberus6]

OMG. I bought a copy from those guys! J/K. Well, I'm sure those guys will get off with a pat on the **** (only in America). Jail? 3 months tops. Oh, and they won't be able to use a computer or have cookies before bedtime for about a year.

[lost-and-found]

the usual punishment for counterfitted software is $100K and 3 years in prison.
(of course they are going to get out with 20K bail.

[ragtop]

These guys deserve some serious jail time, but they'll probably get off easy.

Meanwhile, they're trying to throw the book at Dave McOwen for an essentially meaningless offense.

[RenaissanceMan]

I Do believe it is because of the lack of a more substantial penalty that crimes like these will not only continue but become more frequent. It is apparent that from the prior postings, most of us feel that the justice system is a pathetic circus.

[CMonster]

While I think software piracy is a problem, I believe that efforts of law enforcement agencies should focus first on violent crimes against people -especially children.

Oh, but I guess a few children here and there are not really a major financial concern to major corporations...

[MTAtech]

This is part of the recent anti-piracy efforts of the SBA and the big software houses.

Yes, pirating software is wrong but I'm not going to lose any sleep over Microsoft's lost potential sales. I'm sure nobody their will need to move out of their luxury home.

[bdunn13]

A company I use to work for is getting audited now by MS and the BSA... I think its hilarious my old company pirates everything.. they have one MSDN subscription and its passed around to everyone.. now I hate MS as much as anyone.. but I love the fact that they go around auditing customers.... I guess they are more worried about short term gains as I would guess it would show the auditees(is that a word?) they should seek out other cheeper software.... Apache, MySQL, PHP, Linus, BSD, Star Office, Mozilla........ wow thats some good stuff there.. and its cheap too!

[bdunn13_hater]

You suck Bdunn13!! And you bore me to hell!!

[bdunn13_hater]

You suck Bdunn13!! And you bore me to hell!!

[vitalspark]

No - B Dunn13 isn't boring - but I think that the childish person who is a B Dunn13 hater is - and has to put it in twice to prove it. I suggest that this guy grows up, and remember that everyone is entitled to their opinion. Using abuse on a public forum is sheer bad manners! So there...

Yes, crooked firms who misuse software licences should be dealt with - serves them right. I don't like MS and their ilk but I like to stay on the right side of the law! Costs me money to do so and if someone gets an unfair advantage by acting illegally, then they should be nailed for it!

[JimHC]

BTW, MSDN - the least expensive edition, at least - is now being allowed to be passed around to as many users that work for the company that wants it, by MS.
Here in my metro area, there was a young guy who dropped of college to build custom PCs. He had a small string of stores and was written up locally as one of the up-and-coming business leaders of the area. His bubble was burst when he was caught after buying, I heard, a whole 18-wheeler trailer of stolen MS software and selling them in his stores. He was not prosecuted, as I see from the above postings that the judicial system does not punish much. Instead, MS got an 11 million dollar judgement from their lawsuit against him. Needless to say, all his stores went out of business and he is now very discraced. He should have stayed in college and taken an ethics course or two, but by your mid-twenties you are supposed to know what is right or wrong.

[Shagnasty]

Seems like everyone wants to hate Microsoft
I don't get it...I love Bill Gates. We should
also note that only a very small percentage
of MS Employees are Reaping the Rewards. It's
a business just like any other where most of
the people are working for slave wages just
like the rest of us. Copied CD's might cost
them that Raise. I'm guilty of copying myself
and I don't make excuses. If caught the crime
must be punished. I have never copied and
sold anything, there is no profit motive, I'm
just too cheap to buy all the software that
I'd like to try to see if it really will do
what I want, most don't. Personally, I would
like to see all those that claim to hate MS
just stop using the products...Linux is out
there...somewhere...go for it!

[hirschY]

Just about everyone I know copies CD's, but never for profit.
I do purchase the software I use, and make sure anyone I do business with does too.
The legal penalties are very severe, and it just isnt worth it!
As far as M$, if it wanst for them, would any of us SA types have a job?
If everything was Unix/Linux based, we would have to break it remotley to keep our jobs!
Bill is my hero, and no one can change my mind
We all should pray to the (porcalin) God , and thank M$ for our existence.

[This message has been edited by hirschY (edited 08-15-2001).]

[boid_twitty]

Just keeping one real MS licensed OS running reliably on one machine is hard enough.

Mind you, MS has never been of much assistance in this, so the benefits of licensing are negligeable.

Any idiot can tell you to re-install; it seems too buggy for them to troubleshoot, and its release life will be too short to justify the effort.