By Joe Keiser
“These decisions illustrate, once again, that game piracy will not be tolerated and the extent at which these criminals will be prosecuted.”
The Entertainment Software Association has released a statement applauding the efforts of the US Department of Justice and FBI in getting long prison sentences for two video game pirates.
The statement specifically cites the recent sentences of Kevin Fuchs and Kifah Maswadi. Fuchs, a New York resident, supplied pre-release software to the “warez scene” and tested DRM-stripped software meant for distribution. He was caught by the FBI’s Operations Fastlink and Site Down, and pleaded guilty to conspiring to reproduce and distributed copyrighted works. He was sentenced on August 20th to eight months in jail, followed by eight months of house arrest during two years of court supervision.
Maswadi, a resident of Oakland, Florida, was arrested for selling Power Players—inexpensive clones of the original Nintendo Entertainment System that came illegally pre-loaded with at least 76 copyrighted games. Maswadi earned $390,000 selling these systems online from 2006 to 2007.
After pleading guilty to one count of criminal copyright infringement, Maswadi cooperated with the government to have his three-year prison sentence reduced to fifteen months. He was also sentenced to three years supervised release and 50 hours of community service, and will have to pay a $415,000 restitution.
“These decisions illustrate, once again, that game piracy will not be tolerated and the extent at which these criminals will be prosecuted,” said ESA CEO Michael D. Gallagher. “We commend the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Western District of North Carolina and the Eastern District of Virginia and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their work in bringing these criminals to justice.”
