U.S.-China probe nets $500 million
fake software
Reuters
Published on ZDNet News: July 24, 2007, 6:18 AM PT
More than $500 million worth of pirated software, including
counterfeit Microsoft and Symantec products, has been seized in a
long-running joint probe by Chinese police and the U.S. Federal
Bureau of Investigation, officials from both countries said on
Tuesday.
The operation began in 2005 and has led to 25 arrests and the
smashing of several pirating syndicates in China that were making
and distributing counterfeit software around the world, mostly to
the United States.
"The cooperation between the U.S. and China is an important
development," said Steven Hendershot, the FBI's legal attache in
Beijing. "But we still have a long way to go."
Widespread intellectual property rights violations across a range
of industries, including software, music, movies and fashion, have
been a major source of friction between China and major trade
partners the United States and Europe.
Details of what officials called the "unprecedented co-operative
effort" between China's policing ministry and the FBI were unveiled
to the media at an intellectual property conference in the southern
Chinese city of Shenzhen.
More than 290,000 counterfeit software CDs and certificates of
authenticity have been seized in the operation.
Six manufacturing and retail facilities were dismantled and 47,000
counterfeit Microsoft CDs seized, as well as equipment to
manufacture Symantec computer software products.
The FBI estimated the retail value of the software seized at more
than $500 million.
The figure represents 10 percent of software piracy losses in China
in 2006, according to the Business Software Alliance.
