An Oregon man will spend the next four years in prison for his role in selling counterfeit software on eBay
Convicted software pirate Jeremiah Mondello was sentenced
last week to a four-year prison sentence after being caught and convicted of
selling pirated software through eBay. In addition to selling the
counterfeit software, Mondello also admitted to identity theft after stealing
personal information so he could create new PayPal accounts.
Mondello was responsible for using as many as 40 fake usernames to sell up to
$1 million in counterfeit software between December 2005 and October 2007, the
government alleged. Officially, he was convicted of criminal copyright
infringement, aggravated identity theft, and mail fraud.
Mondello will also have three years of supervised release and must perform 450
hours of community service once he is released from prison.
During his three year stint as an eBay business guru, Mondello reportedly made
up to $300,000 selling Intuit Quicken financial software for $30 per copy.
He's free on bail at the moment, but must report to jail to begin his sentence
in the next 60 days.
"I just sold a few to pay for gas and lunch," Mondello
told Wired in an exclusive interview,
explaining how he entered the world of counterfeiting. "I was on
financial aid. I didn't want to take out any more student loans.
That was the starting motivation. Later, I guess I kind of decided I
thought it would be a good idea to save some money and start my own business
and do some travel."
To date, the Department of Justice (DoJ) has successfully convicted 29 people
who were involved in counterfeit software being sold online through auction web
sites.
The latest controversy surrounding pirated software may yet again see eBay in
legal hot water with manufacturers and the government. The Software and
Information Industry Association is thinking about suing eBay over the
counterfeit goods.
If it chooses not to file a lawsuit against eBay, however, the software group
may petition Congress to consider rewriting the Digital Millennium Act so that
online auction houses will have to be responsible for the actions of their
users.
EBay already faces legal pressure in several different nations from a handful
of companies trying to force the auction site to take responsibility for what
its users sell through the site. EBay recently lost in a French court
after Louis
Vuitton won a reported $63 million from the company.
In the U.S., eBay won a suit against Tiffany, after the judge said the site
effectively took "reasonable action" to try and stop fraudsters from
selling copyrighted material through the site.
"There is a single light of science, and to brighten it anywhere is to brighten it everywhere." -- Isaac Asimov
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