The US Department of Justice this week said a woman was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay $441,035 in restitution for selling more than $400,000 worth of counterfeit software.
According to documents filed in court, Jacinda Jones of Ypsilanti, Mich., made more than $400,000 between July 2008 and January 2010 by selling more than 7,000 copies of pirated business software at discounted prices through the website www.cheapdl.com. The software had a retail value of more than $2 million and was owned by several companies, including Microsoft, Adobe, Intuit and Symantec .
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Jones was also given three years of supervised release following her prison term. Jones pleaded guilty on April 20, 2011, to one count of criminal copyright infringement. Jones' activities came to the attention of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who made several undercover purchases of the pirated business and utility software, the DOJ stated.
Jones' websites included cheapsoftwaredownloads.net, cheapdl.com, and jjsdiscountelectronics.com. During the investigation, the defendant admitted that the site cheapdl.com sold over 7,000 copies of pirated software from BSA member companies. Undercover purchases made by BSA revealed that software purchased via Jones' websites came infected with malware-exposing buyers to potential viruses and other threats according to a Business Software Alliance press release issued after the sentencing.
Online piracy theft contributed to a $59 billion problem globally, including $9.5 billion in 2010 in the US alone, according to the Eighth Annual BSA and IDC Global Piracy Study.
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