An eBay seller accused of selling pirated software on was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison, three years supervised release following jail time, and 150 hours of community service per year. The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), which initiated the action against the seller, also announced six new lawsuits against sellers of illegal software on auction sites.
The SIIA called the software pirate a "whiz-kid who used his smarts and savvy to rip off software makers and consumers," and said the Oregon resident used stolen bank account information to create more than 40 fictitious eBay and PayPal identities to sell pirated software via the auction site.
With the new cases announced today, SIIA has filed 32 lawsuits in 2008 as part of its ramped-up effort to stop the illegal sale of software online. Through its aggressive Auction Litigation Program, SIIA filed nine lawsuits in February, eight in March, nine in May and six today. Each of the new suits was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of SIIA member-company Adobe Systems Incorporated.
