FBI Busts Half-Billion Dollar Chinese Software Piracy Ring

Gangs in China were copying Symantec and Microsoft products for resale back to the United States.  The FBI estimated that the property seized was worth a half-billion dollars.

You know what they do to software pirates in China?  Just what they always did to pirates in China.

From the AP here:

The FBI and Chinese police busted two software piracy gangs and seized programs worth an estimated $500 million, officials said Tuesday.
 
Police arrested 25 people in the joint campaign that started in 2005, seizing 360,000 programs and property valued at $7.9 million.

The gangs allegedly operated from Shanghai and Shenzhen, and targeted programs from Microsoft Corp. and Symantec Corp.

China has long been the world’s leading source of illegally copied goods, including designer clothes, movies and music.