Man sentenced to three years in jail for selling pirated software on eBay…

A man has been sentenced to three years in jail for selling pirated software on eBay, the popular auction site. The US court also ordered Gregory Fair to pay Adobe Systems US$740,000. Undercover investigators had made several purchases from Fair after Adobe had reported their suspicions. This is living proof that people can get tracked down and sent to jail for conducting unlawful activity on the web.
BSA steps up efforts to stop pirated software…
The Business Software Alliance has dramatically increased the amount of take-down notices to people whom it believes is distributing pirated software. In the first six months of 2009, the BSA issued 2.4 million notices to people suspected of illegal file-sharing, more than triple the number that it issued in the corresponding period for 2008. It also targeted Internet auction sites after finding issues with nearly 20,000 auctions during the first half of 2009. The BSA claims that about two-fifths of all software on PCs are obtained illegally and publishers are being short-changed by about $53 billion by lost sales. It also warned that users of illegal software should be wary because viruses and other malicious software are often distributed with the pirated versions. The BSA is a group representing leading software licensors which collects underpaid licence fees on its members’ behalves.