Two Germans Sentenced for Software Piracy
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A court found a German software dealer guilty of counterfeiting Microsoft products, and sentenced him to three years in prison, authorities said Wednesday.
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(InfoWorld) - Hackers may want to avoid Germany, after the approval of a law that makes their activity a punishable crime. The legislation, which theÂ German government proposedÂ earlier last year and approved Friday with no changes, aims to crack down on the sharp rise in computer attacks in the public and private sectors. Although Germany already has a comprehensive penal law against attacks on IT systems, the new legislation looks to close any remaining loopholes. It defines hacking as penetrating a computer security system and gaining access to secure data, without necessarily stealing data. Offenders are defined as any individual or group that intentionally creates, spreads or purchases hacker tools designed for illegal purposes. They could face up to 10 years in prison for major offenses. Other punishable cybercrimes include DOS (denial-of-service) attacks and computer sabotage attacks on individuals, which would extend the existing law that limited sabotage to businesses and public authorities. The new law, however, has drawn criticism by several groups, including the hacker club Chaos Computer Club e.V., which points to the work of "good" hackers, also known as "white hats," who work for security companies. These computer experts, the club argues, could be restricted in their ability to help software makers develop secure products and businesses to deploy them. That opinion is shared by some hackers as well. In an e-mail, a hacker, known by the pseudonym van Hauser, wrote that if hackers are unable to share their tools with the public, white hats will not be able to get them and use them internally for testing or external security consultants won't be able to do security testing. "It's a win-lose law in favor for the bad guys," he wrote. Chaos Computer Club also warns that the law could make it much easier for the German government to allow law enforcement officials to install spyware on computers of suspected criminals without their knowledge. The club is concerned about the ability of consumers and businesses to protect their systems from government spyware without support from the hacker community. In February, the country's High Court handed down a landmark decisionÂ banning police from installing spyware, delivering a blow to the plans of the German Interior Minister Wolfgang SchÃ¤uble to give the Federal Criminal Police Office greater power to monitor terrorists and other criminals online, and peek inside their computers. But SchÃ¤uble is seeking ways ever since to have the court revise its decision. Â
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The men behind one of the most popular file-sharing sites in the world are charged copyright offences.
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Jail-time beckons Two Americans pleaded guilty today to selling $6m worth of counterfeit software over eBay.â¦
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InfoWorld - The leader of one of the oldest and most widely recognized Internet software piracy groups was sentenced Friday to 51 months in prison on one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.
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German man sentenced to three years for selling counterfeit Microsoft products.
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Just because your friends distribute 20,000 copyrighted works... An Illinois man was sentenced to 30 months in prison for his part in an organized online software distribution conspiracy, the US Department of Justice announced late last week. That's warez, if you don't prefer the grandiose.â¦
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Greek and British police in a joint operation cracked a multi-million illegal software sales ring, arresting two people and seizing thousands of pirate high-tech software programs, Greek police said on Friday.
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Third says he played a minor role Two of the three main defendants in the FTPWelt trial, which opened this week at the District Court of MÃ¼hlhausen in Germany, have admitted that they offered bootleg software, games and movies through a high speed download service Ftpwelt.com.â¦
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Anti-spyware company had granted another company rights to its software.
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Informants, seeking a reward from Microsoft, led police to the German student.
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A federal judge sentences one of the largest U.S. software pirates to pay $5.4 million and forfeit homes, cars and a boat that he bought with proceeds from his scheme -- and spend 87 months in the hoosegow.
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A computer technician involved in a  bid to extort $1.3 million from Tom Cruise for copies of the  actor's stolen wedding photographs was sentenced on Thursday to  two years probation.
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Athens police said they had arrested a Greek citizen who pirated and sold a computer software program, costing the multinational company that owned its copyright hundreds of million of dollars (euros).
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Six will be sentenced this fall in criminal copyright infringement case involving counterfeit software.
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A University of Iowa student is the first person convicted of software piracy in the Department of Justice&#39;s &quot;Operation Fastlink.
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Germany on Friday handed a mock award -- a black dwarf with a golden nose -- to a Chinese manufacturer, among others, to draw attention to the growing threat of piracy around the globe.