China Jails Four For Microsoft XP Piracy

adeelarshad82 writes "Chinese court has jailed four people for spreading their bootleg 'Tomato Garden' version of Microsoft's Windows XP program, in what the Xinhua news agency called the nation's biggest software piracy case. One of the four men Hong Lei, the creator of the downloadable 'Tomato Garden Windows XP' software, was jailed for three and a half years by a court in Suzhou in eastern China, Xinhua."

Comments

Use Linux

[dedazo]

Seriously. I'm not one to loudly advocate using Linux on the desktop, but if it's a choice between jail and Linux... choose Linux. Use WINE if there's something you can't do without.

(I was going to make a Soviet Russia/Communist China joke here but I decided not to)

Re:Use Linux

[CharlyFoxtrot]

These aren't 4 random guys pirating Windows for their own use, so your suggestion to just use Linux isn't relevant. These assholes were trying to be 1337. From TFA:

Hong "created the Tomato Garden version of the Windows XP," which crippled the program's authentication and certification barriers, said Xinhua, allowing users unrestricted access to the popular Microsoft software. Millions of Internet users then had free access to the software on a website, tomatolei.com, which made its earnings from advertisements on the site, it said.

I think 3,5 years (and 2 years for 2 others) for maliciously ripping off someone else's work and distributing it is quite mild by China's standards. Hell with the current laws it might be mild by US standards.

Big nothing.

[Kuano]

So let me get this straight. The largest piracy case ever in the largest country in the world with the most piracy in the world included 4 people?

Re:Big nothing.

[LaskoVortex]

So let me get this straight. The largest piracy case ever in the largest country in the world with the most piracy in the world included 4 people?

Yes. It's a shame. My heart really goes out to Microsoft on this one. I mean, the amount of disillusionment they must be feeling right now must be unbearable. All those years of fighting for justice and trying to make a good product and this is what they get? It's like a slap in the face. A real shame. It's like China doesn't give a rat's ass whether Microsoft turns a profit in their country or not, or any other American software company. I tell you what, I'm not going to buy Chinese products any more if they are going to treat American software producers like this. What a farce!

Re:Big nothing.

[PsychicX]

I don't think you quite understand. These people didn't go to some torrent site and download Windows. They took Windows XP, built an illicit distribution with the activation bits etc removed, and sent that around -- probably for money. IOW, they enabled millions of other people to run stolen copies of Windows XP, possibly without even realizing it (third rate vendors have a nasty habit of using these bootleg Windows copies on their machines).

Re:Big nothing.

[LaskoVortex]

Printed on the box it said "Made in USA"

They were talking about the box.

srsly

[grrrl]

so making MONEY from setting up a business distributing copies of XP you altered intentionally and distribute to millions gets your 3 1/2 years but downloading a few songs for personal use gets you whacked with millions in damages which will cripple your life?

Re:Because they're about to start writing software

[Zontar The Mindless]

They are in their second millennium of being a civilization.

Second millennium? More like fifth or sixth.

In lieu of a car analogy, I offer the following:

Just imagine what things would be like in Egypt if the Egyptians still wrote with hieroglyphics and worshipped at temples dedicated to Ra and company... and that the Pharaohs had been overthrown only within the last century or so.

Now substitute "China/Chinese" for "Egypt/Egyptian", "ideograms" for "hieroglyphics", "Shangdi" for "Ra and Co.", and "Chinese Emperors" for "Pharaohs".

That's China.

China is beyond "old"; it was already old when the Romans kicked out Tarquin the Proud.

Most Westerners -- especially Americans, for whom "ancient" means "more than 250 years ago" -- simply do not get this.

Re:Sounds Good

[Hal_Porter]

Someone in Taiwan who's familiar with such things said criminal accusations are inherently political. Pretty much all politicians are corrupt and The Party controls the courts. Best way to get rid of a rival is to denounce them for corruption. Interestingly it's not the verdict of the court case that shows they are finished, the fact that the case was not blocked is enough. Actually if you can even read about a potential case you know they are finished, because if they had a chance the coverage would have been censored. E.g. Li Peng

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Li_Peng#Alleged_Corruption

As the findings of the investigation leaked to the general Chinese public, the Chinese government took an unexpected stand. As victims (including some influential social citizens of Beijing) of New Nation Great Co. angrily demonstrated outside the Zhongnanhai more than a dozen times, hold up the banners that claim "Li Peng return the money to us from your son", none of the demonstrations were dispersed and none of the demonstrators were arrested. Each time, the Chinese government only sent police to watch the demonstrators and did nothing else. As the information of the investigation was leaked and circulated on the Internet, it was not immediately censored; instead, it was allowed to circulate for quite some time before the eventual ban, and none of the domestic Chinese Web sites that published the info were shut down by the Chinese governmental censorship. However, the Chinese government did not respond to the victims' and public demands either. China analysts postulate such an unusual move by the Chinese government served several purposes, including pressuring Li Peng to retire from his post of chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress when he reached the age limit, as well as putting a distance between Li Peng and the government itself for the future leadership. Whatever the reason, the investigation results concerning corruption charges of Li Peng's family that leaked to the public, was tolerated by the Chinese government for a short period of time, and certainly made Li Peng and his family become more unpopular than ever among the general Chinese populace.