Beijing: A Chinese court has issued tough sentences to members of a huge software counterfeiting ring, which distributed more than two billion dollars worth of fake Microsoft goods, the company said.

The court in the southern city of Shenzhen yesterday sentenced 11 people to jail terms of up to six-and-a-half years for making high-quality counterfeit software that was sold in 36 countries, Microsoft said in a statement.

The sentences were the "stiffest ever meted out for intellectual property rights violations in China," said a report on the verdicts by the popular Chinese Internet portal Sina.com.

The illegal syndicate, based in the southern province of Guangdong, pirated versions of 19 of the company's most popular products, which were produced in at least 11 languages, Microsoft said in its statement posted yesterday.

Microsoft described the group as the world's biggest software counterfeiting syndicate.

The Futian People's Court, which issued the verdicts, could not be reached by AFP today, a national holiday in China.

Ringleaders were arrested in July 2007 by China's Public Security Bureau after a joint investigation with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

US officials have previously called the joint effort a milestone in law enforcement cooperation between the two sides, and Microsoft thanked them for their efforts.

"Microsoft greatly appreciates the work of China's PSB and the FBI in taking strong enforcement action against this global software counterfeiting syndicate," David Finn, a top Microsoft anti-piracy official, said in the statement.
Source : PTI