Man Gets 30 Months for Selling Pirated Games

It should be clear that the “crime doesn’t pay” motto is a good one, but some people just can’t see the light before it’s too late. Piracy is a major problem… it’s no secret, and no company wants to see their software, games, movies and likewise downloaded for free off of the Internet. What do they hate even worse? The pirated copies being sold, of course.

This kind of activity is hugely popular around the world, but it’s rare to ever hear about someone going to jail as a result of it, and it’s for that reason that it’s still so prevalent. In the US, selling pirated materials happens on a much smaller scale, so when it does happen, and someone gets caught, it never goes down smoothly.

Qiang ‘Michael’ Bi learned this the hard way. He’s been sentenced to 30 months in prison, and had his house, vehicle and over $300,000 USD forfeited, all because he sold pirated games for a living. When the FBI raided his house, he had multiple CD duplicators and over 1,000 counterfeit CDs… not too subtle. Qiang sold these pirated games via eBay and Amazon, totalling at least 35,000.

The interesting thing is that it doesn’t seem to be the piracy that got him into the most trouble, but other things he had to do in order to sell the pirated materials, such as gathering financial information of customers. You can’t have one without the other, and both roads still lead to prison.

I certainly don’t feel too badly for Mr. Bi, as I’ve purchased audio CDs on eBay before that were obviously pirated (I never took action, though), and it’s frustrating. I do wonder how many of Mr. Bi’s customers actually knew they were buying illegal copies of the games, because you’d have to imagine with a number as high as 35,000, some people would catch on.

Following his release from prison, the judge ordered Bi to two years of supervised release with twelve months of the supervised release to be spent in home confinement. He was also sentenced to serve 416 months of community service and will be required to make restitution to the companies who created the games. The amount of restitution is yet to be determined. Bi agreed to forfeit $367,669 in cash which represents the proceeds of the crimes. He also agreed to forfeit his interests in his house, a car, and all computer and electronic equipment used to illegally copy and sell the games.