Yesterday brought wonderful news of another victory in the ongoing battle against software piracy. In Oklahoma, Daniel Johnson was sentenced to nearly four years in prison in exchange for his guilty plea to charges of copyright infringement and piracy. Johnson sold pirated copies of Microsoft programs. In addition to his prison term, Johnson was ordered by the court to pay $550,000 in restitution and to forfeit diamond earrings and $150K+ in cash.

To my pro-piracy colleagues, this is a classic story of software piracy and runs counter to all of the overused and meaningless justifications for software piracy

• Johnson wasn’t doing this because his customers couldn’t get the features they needed
• He wasn’t helping Microsoft get feedback about their product
• He wasn’t helping identify needed features in Microsoft’s programs
• He wasn’t expanding Microsoft’s market for new customers
• He wasn’t making a noble political stand against poorly implemented DRM

He was simply stealing to buy some bling.

In their story, Alleged software counterfeiters indicted, NetworkWorld reports on another case being pursued by the SIIA and the Department of Justice where  a pair of software pirates are facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted for setting up several merchant accounts on eBay to sell their pirated wares. As the SIIA describes it, “...they acquired software duplicating equipment to mass produce and label counterfeit copies cloned from legitimate brand name products.” One of the accused is still on the run from federal authorities. We will keep you updated as this desperate-duo are brought to justice.

Lessons from the frontline – there are bad people in the world – protect your software.