Game Piracy Nets Jail Term, Heavy Fine

[Andy Chalk]

Game Piracy Nets Jail Term, Heavy Fine

An Ohio man will lose his house, his car, spend more than two years in prison, eat a $367,000 fine and be forced to pay restitution after being convicted of selling pirated videogames online.

36-year-old Qiang "Michael" Bi made a big mistake when he mailed a spreadsheet containing details about his counterfeit software business from his personal email account to his work account at Nationwide Insurance, his former employer. It's quite arguable that his real "big mistake" was selling over 35,000 pirated PC games over a period stretching from 2005 to the end of 2009, but however you want to look at it, the email and spreadsheet, which listed more than 50 PayPal [http-://www.ebay.com] accounts used to sell the games, was discovered by Nationwide and that's where his troubles begin.

An investigation by the FBI's Cybercrime Task Force and U.S. Postal Inspectors ensued, leading to Bi's arrest, charges and conviction on mail fraud, copyright infringement and aggravated identity theft. Judge Algenon Marbley said he believes Bi is "a good person" at his core who "made a gross error in judgment... all motivated by greed," but nonetheless sentenced him to 2.5 years in prison, 416 hours of community service and restitution of an as-yet-undetermined amount. Bi will also have to fork over $367,669 dollars representing the proceeds of the crime, along with his house, his car, his computer and other electronic equipment.

Investigators determined that the retail value of the games Bi sold, which he offered for $10 a pop, was roughly $700,000.

Source: The Columbus Dispatch [http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2010/12/29/computer-game-counterfeiter-sentenced.html?sid=101]


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[Lightslei]

So he would of gotten away with this had e not emailed himself? He has to be cursing himself for that.

 

[findler]

Win for justice. If you want to pirate video games and then sell them at profit, in this case a massive profit, then I don't feel sorry at all you're getting nailed. People like this hurt the industry in a big way and I'd rather see them get their just desserts.

 

[moretimethansense]

See this is the kind of pirate arsehole that they should be hunting, rather than those than simply download a few games.

 

[C95J]

We all know what the lesson is here don't we...

Serves him right to be honest.

 

[Phoenix09215]

Well considering I legally purchase all my media because I AM NOT A PIRATE >:O... I am pleased by this news! Hopefully this is an example of things to come!

 

[Dastardly]

See this is the kind of pirate arsehole that they should be hunting, rather than those than simply download a few games.

Why should they be going after him?

All he's doing is putting his time into helping others get a few games. He makes a few bucks on the side for his troubles, but really he's just copying out a few games for some folks. What's wrong with that?

(I kid, I kid)

What's wrong with it is that he is benefiting from someone else's work, giving them nothing in return. Furthermore, he's enabling others to do the same. That's what he's doing that's so heinous that this "arsehole" is deserving of so stiff a penalty. And hey, you even agree, so we're all on the same page.

Problem? It's no different from run-of-the-mill piracy. If you're downloading a torrent, and you're seeding, you're distributing that file to others. No, you're not making any money on it... but neither are the people that worked to make the game.

What this guy does is only wrong because of the existence of "those simply downloading a few games. Without them, who does he sell to? No one. He's just a guy with 35,000 copies of some games sitting on his computer. We look at him like he's the big Satan because of the scope--35,000 copies--but what about the 35,000 folks that used his services?

Those are your downloaders. Your "basic" pirates. It is only because of them that anything this guy did is wrong. To act like they're separate from him, better than him, is to delude oneself.

 

[Therumancer]

Well, my big question here is why he mailed that information to his place of employment to begin with. Makes me wonder who his lawyer was, because it makes me suspect some sort of entrapment might have been involved. Not saying that he should have gotten away with it, but the the thought did cross my mind.

That said, I'd consider the guy more of a knock-off artist than an actual pirate. That makes him considerably worse. See, he's not distributing games for free which is enough of a problem, but he's charging money for software he's claiming is the genuine retail article. Probably presenting himself as some kind of whole-saler. Thus some bargain hunter buys a game from him, tries to register it or obtain support, and BAM they get cut off for having a pirated copy even if they can provide a receipt. The deception involved here, is what makes things so bad. Not to mention that the fact that he was charging money makes it so that he's actually stealing money, as opposed to simply costing the producers money when you get down to it, neither is right, but there are degrees of wrong.

Honestly the nature of what this guy did makes me think the Judge was a bit too lienent, as this is the kind of guy that should have the book thrown at them as an example, as this is about as bad as this kind of crime gets on all levels. The only thing that could possibly make it worse if if he was selling bootleg DS games, because in addition to everything else those have a nasty tendency to stop working/fitting in the slot after a while, meaning that the customer typically winds up getting screwed without even having to try and register it or whatever, and what's more the company whose name is on the product (Nintendo) winds up taking the reputation hit for manufacturing a shoddy product on top of everything else. Counterfeit DS games being unusually infamous nowadays.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

See this is the kind of pirate arsehole that they should be hunting, rather than those than simply download a few games.

Indeed. You do more good jailing a dealer than a druggie. But then again, Agencies aren't lauded for their smart and rational decisions so much as upholding the Corporate Agenda.

 

[Something Amyss]

See this is the kind of pirate arsehole that they should be hunting, rather than those than simply download a few games.

No, they should still hunt all of them down unless they buy the game from a reputable source within a year or so.

That seems awful arbitrary.

 

[DTWolfwood]

Nationwide is on your their side

 

[Woodsey]

Good.

That is all.

 

[Stabby Joe]

By taking away all his things, sending him to jail AND having a fine of a third of a million? It reminds me of those sentences where a person gets a random large number EG 137 years in prison... when in actual fact it's just "life".

Basically a way of hammering in the punishment for all others. This case then would be projected to all others since piracy is now a much larger issue, one of which I agree should be tackled. Piracy is harming development.

See this is the kind of pirate arsehole that they should be hunting, rather than those than simply download a few games.

And just who were all this guy's games going to? This man is at fault and was rightfully punished but it's not all black and white.

 

[SantoUno]

Tough but fair.

Even if it is true that he is arguably a good person if you knew the guy, selling that much and even advertising it is pretty much a serious offense.

When I see pirates on the streets selling DVDs of the newest movies, I wouldn't go as far as to report them to authorities, but if I ever saw them get caught I would have no sympathy whatsoever. They chose to break the law to make profit, so they don't get to complain or beg for an appeal.

 

[Monshroud]

Yay for Justice... This guy deserves the punishment. Had this been someone who burned a copy of a game for a buddy that would be one thing, but the scale of what he did rules out any possibility that he didn't realize what he was doing was wrong.

These are the people that the Government should be hunting.