Off-line

Germans Jail Texan Pirate

A regional court in Aachen, Germany, sentenced a 39-year-old Texan to four years imprisonment without probation for software piracy.

The sentence involves the largest software piracy case ever in Germany, according to Dietmar Dumke, a spokesman for the Aachen Regional Court.

The defendant, named only as John S., was arrested in July 1998 near the Dutch-German border on suspicion that he was involved in dealing illegal software, according to Dumke.

The authorities also confiscated some 120 million marks (US$64.14 million) worth of merchandise from a truck and warehouses in the area around Cologne and Aachen, Germany, Dumke confirmed. That included hundreds of thousands of CD-ROMs, as well as users manuals, registration cards, floppy disk labels and certificates of authenticity. The fake software had been produced in England and the defendant had intended to sell it on the German market.

The accused, an American by birth, was arrested the same day and has spent the last few months detained in custody pending trial. Throughout the trial, he denied the accusations and made use of his right to refuse to testify during the proceedings, according to a statement from Microsoft Corp.

Most of the products involved in the case were from Microsoft, according to Martina Wimmer, who handles software piracy at Microsoft in Munich, although Corel Inc.’s products were also included. The illegal software included bootleg versions of Microsoft Office, Windows 95 OEM (original equipment manufacturer) version, Windows NT Workstation, and Windows NT Server, she said.

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

Featured Articles

Cybersecurity in 2024: Priorities and challenges for Canadian organizations 

By Derek Manky As predictions for 2024 point to the continued expansion...

Survey shows generative AI is a top priority for Canadian corporate leaders.

Leaders are devoting significant budget to generative AI for 2024 Canadian corporate...

Related Tech News

Tech Jobs

Our experienced team of journalists and bloggers bring you engaging in-depth interviews, videos and content targeted to IT professionals and line-of-business executives.

Tech Companies Hiring Right Now