Washington (DC) - A man has been sentenced to 27 months in prison after The US Justice Department discovered that he earned more than $4 million selling counterfeit software on eBay.

36-year-old Courtney Smith plead guilty to dozens of counts of counterfeiting.  According to the Justice Department, the Indiana native sold high-end corporate software from Rockwell Automation in multiple auctions, receiving a total in excess of $4,100.  However, the retail value of the software in question summed up to around $700,000.

Smith confessed that he purchased counterfeit version of the software on eBay and then made multiple copies to re-sell, advertising them as new, official versions of the applications, which went for as high as $11,000.

"The Department of Justice is committed to prosecuting individuals who exploit legitimate online auction sites to sell pirated software and commit other acts of fraud," said Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher.

IT Specialist

Mar 30, 2007 13:33     

Then they should prosecute the buyers for knowingly receiving stolen goods. When you pay 1/100th of the retail price its about as obvious as it can get. At a previous job I always had a boss ask why we paid $200 for a software package that was $25 on ebay, but if someone offered to sell him a $2000 laptop for $200 he knew there was something wrong.
darkpaw report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

They need to be doing more of this!!

Apr 11, 2007 17:16     

There are so many sellers of counterfeit goods on ebay, it is disgusting. I have a whole blog dedicated to a seller who operates under two names (lovelygizmo1986 and dianesstylesboutique). She sends out crappy counterfeit designer jeans to unsuspecting buyers. Check out the whole story at http://jackanddianearefrauds.blogspot.com/
C report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1