A former employee at a local computer company has been sentenced to five
and a half years in prison for stealing 200 labels with the serial numbers of
authorized Windows XP systems and selling them to an agent at a software
company.
The serial numbers would then allegedly be sold to people with pirated copies
of Windows XP who needed legitimate serial numbers to gain access to the
operating system.
The 200 labels were estimated to be worth nearly 200,000 yuan (US$30,030) in
total, the Jing’an District People’s Court heard.
Fu Hua, an accessory to the crime, was given a three-year suspended prison
sentence.
Wang, 27, who had previously served five years in prison for robbery, was in
charge of maintaining computers and installing and testing software in new
computers for the Shanghai branch of Zhejiang University Wangxin Tuling
Info-tech Co Ltd, the biggest distributor of Lenovo computers in Shanghai.
When he was assigned the job of installing Microsoft XP into a batch of new
computers bought by a local corporation in May 2008, he removed the legitimate
labels and replaced them with forgeries.
Wang then sold the labels to an agent at another software company for up to
160 yuan each. Up to this point, Wang had stolen 75 labels.
In July 2008, Wang was reassigned and his role was taken by Fu. Wang asked Fu
to help him continue stealing the labels in return for a share in the profits.
Fu agreed. From July 2008 to August 2008, Fu stole 125 labels.
A company that bought a number of computers from Wangxin noticed that their
serial numbers were the same during an audit. They reported this to Wangxin who
started an investigation which revealed the duo’s crime.
They both pleaded guilty and Wang had to return 30,000 yuan in illegal income
to Wangxin. The company has fully compensated affected
clients.
Article source: http://english.eastday.com/e/101126/u1a5572102.html
Category: Prison Time
Article source: http://nationalcybersecurity.com/?p=41193