1 April 2010

Father and son admit $1 million fake software sale

A father and son have pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit computer software worth $1 million through the Internet, violating criminal copyright infringement laws, according to the US Department of Justice.

Judge Thomas Ellis, of the Virginia District Court, heard Robert Cook, 56, and Todd Cook, 23, plead guilty to criminal copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement on March 11.

The Cooks, from Wichita Falls in Texas, operated several websites for almost two years, the Department of Justice said. These websites sold large quantities of counterfeit software with a value of around $1 million.

In order to promote the downloadable counterfeit software, the Cooks bought advertising for their websites from major search engines.

The Cooks face up to five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release.

Already registered?

Login to your account

To request a FREE 2-week trial subscription, please signup.
NOTE - this can take up to 48hrs to be approved.

Two Weeks Free Trial

For multi-user price options, or to check if your company has an existing subscription that we can add you to for FREE, please email Adrian Tapping at atapping@newtonmedia.co.uk