EBay software pirates fined US$100,000

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) has been paid US$100,000 in damages after settling two cases of illegal software sales.

Two defendants, Kevin Liu and G T Tian, paid a total of US$100,000 in damages, as well as agreeing to stop selling illegal software, in one of the cases arising from the SIIA's Auction Litigation Program.

Liu and Tian also provided the SIIA with records identifying their customers and suppliers of pirated software.

The suit was filed on behalf of Symantec, and was among the first under the Auction Litigation Program.

This initiative aims to monitor popular online auction sites, identify individuals or groups selling pirated software and prosecute those pirates on behalf of the Association's member companies. 

The defendants were accused in the suit of infringing copyrights and trademarks owned by Symantec in Norton PC Anywhere, Norton SystemWorks 2005 Premier and Norton Ghost.

Over two years, the defendants sold US$750,000 worth of software for approximately US$123,000.

"Selling pirated software, especially through online auction sites, is a growing problem that hurts businesses and consumers and threatens the credibility and viability of online auctions," said Keith Kupferschmid, vice president of the SIIA's Software Anti-Piracy Division.

"Defendants Liu and Tian learned the hard way that selling pirated software does not pay."

Liu said in a statement: "If I had known the SIIA was checking EBay for software piracy, and if I had known that the software was pirated and that I'd have to pay such a high fine, I would have never sold the pirated software to begin with."

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