Microsoft Helps Nab $900M Piracy Ring

[HardOCP News]

In hopes of deterring others from pirating its software, Microsoft is telling the tale of how the company tracked down a high-tech piracy ring and had them prosecuted. The story is rather impressive when you consider the lengths Microsoft went to catch these guys.

The case began to turn in 2001 when U.S. Customs officers seized a shipping container in Los Angeles filled with $100 million in fake software, including 31,000 copies of the Windows operating system. From there, Microsoft pushed the investigation through 22 countries. Local law enforcement officials seized software, equipment and records, and made arrests.

 

[Ockie]

Blows my mind how many people out there are still trying to pass off pirated content as legit and sell them.

 

[vengence]

People are all ways passing off others works as thier own. My senior design project in school, one of our team members turned in his section of the final report. It consisted of three very well written slighlty off topic paragraphs. I googled the entire 1st paragraph and got a hit, did the same with the other two as well. Some people just refuse to do the work it takes to be original

 

[boss99]

In the grand scheme of things, didn't they just knock off a major competitor to some other bootlegger in Asia?

 

[homernoy]

The thing that really gets me upset is the people who pirate PC games. This is one of the reasons that game devs are making more and more games for consoles and not the PC. I am not saying it is the only reason, because there is a lot of money to be made on the consoles. I just think it gives them one more reason to put less effort or avoid developing for the PC.

As a fairly hard core PC gamer I don't like seeing games becoming crappy ports from the consoles, which is happening more and more often. Maybe this is why Steam isn't so bad after all.

 

[munkle]

The article was a little disappointing. I was expecting Microsoft to be busting in doors and taking names.

 

[vengence]

The article was a little disappointing. I was expecting Microsoft to be busting in doors and taking names.

Microsoft != Chuck norris.

Maybe this is why Steam isn't so bad after all.

I have to give steam some props. When built my latest rig, I just downloaded the Steam client from thier website, signed in, and clicked to download all my Steam games and went to bed. Woke up with 4 games installed fully updated. Very VERY nice.

 

[Steppo]

The thing that really gets me upset is the people who pirate PC games.

I'd like to see an official itemized list of expenditures to show exactly where my $50-$60 is going. I can't help but feel that developers are getting the RIAA treatment where they only get ten cents on the dollar. When packaging changes are made to save money, but the consumer doesn't get the savings, I begin to wonder...

I'm not saying that I'm supporting piracy, but it's hard not to feel a little vindictive.

 

[munkle]

I'd like to see an official itemized list of expenditures to show exactly where my $50-$60 is going. I can't help but feel that developers are getting the RIAA treatment where they only get ten cents on the dollar. When packaging changes are made to save money, but the consumer doesn't get the savings, I begin to wonder...

I'm not saying that I'm supporting piracy, but it's hard not to feel a little vindictive.

The probably only save 10 cents by changing the packaging. The biggest thing would be that it's easier to ship, also it saves resources which is good. They probably aren't going to take 10 cents off the price.