Man Faces 10 Years For Pirating Software
January 16, 2008 | by Christopher Nickson
A British man has pleaded guilty to pirating AceCad software and selling it on eBay. Now he's looking at up to 10 years in jail for his actions.
A British man who broke the encryption code on the AceCad software, widely used in the structural steel industry, then sold pirated copies, has pleaded guilty to the offense and is looking at 10 years in jail, ZDNet has reported.
After pleading guilty to offenses under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Trade Marks Act 1994, Michael Walton from Derby will be sentenced at the beginning of next month, and could face up to 10 years in jail.
The specialized software generally sells for thousands of dollars, but once Walton had cracked it, he put his pirated copies up for sale on – where else? – eBay for $24.
The only reason anyone discovered his crime was because an AceCad employee happened to look on eBay for a gift for his girlfriend.
"We can't stand for things like this. International pop stars might be able to afford people copying their work but we can't," Wayne Rawson, director and general manager of AceCad, told the Derby Evening Telegraph. "We're lucky in that we managed to stop this before too many copies had been sold but, if it had carried on, we could have potentially lost a fortune."
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Mauro Zallocco on Feb 22nd, 2008 at 6:26 AM:
Let me start off saying that I'm not condoning Michael for breaking the law.
With that said, before putting Michael in jail and throwing away the key, I would suggest that AceCad make sure that they are indeed loosing revenue.
The $24 price on EBAY is a great way for prospective companies to try the software and then come back to AceCad for support, upgrades and yes pay the full fee. If they dont come back to AceCad, I suggest they are not using the software and no loss to AceCad.
This is what AceCad should have been doing themselves.
P.S.
He actually broke the encryption?
Thats kind of embarrassing to AceCad.
Alternatively Michael is a genius and AceCad should hire the guy. I suggest a position in engineering or marketing would be appropriate.