Software Association Gets Tough On Software Pirates, eBay
Mondello's case is one of many the association has involved itself in to drive a crackdown on fraudulent software sales.
"Mondello is a whiz-kid who used his smarts and savvy to rip off software makers and consumers," said Keith Kupferschmid, senior vice president of Intellectual Property Policy and Enforcement for SIIA. "We are fortunate that he has been stopped, but there are hundreds more like him running illegal operations on eBay and other sites.
According to court documents, Mondello created more than 40 false user names on eBay and PayPal and ran thousands of auctions selling pirated software. He generated over $400,000 in personal profit between December 2005 and October 2007.
Mondello pled guilty to counts of copyright infringement, mail fraud and aggravated identity theft in May. In addition to the 48 months of jail time, the Oregon resident was sentenced to three years supervision following jail time and 150 hours of community service per year. Additionally, Mondello's personal computers and $220,000 in cash were seized as part of the sentence.
"The Mondello case demonstrates that these pirates won't simply get a slap on the wrist when caught -- they very well may end up doing serious time in federal prison," said Kupferschmid.
In addition to Mondello's court case, the SIIA has filed a total of 32 lawsuits against software pirates in 2008.
Dubbed the SIIA Auction Litigation Program, the association hopes the program will stiffen penalties on sellers of fraudulent software while educating the public by publishing software buying guides for auction sites and implementing a program for certified software sellers.
If a seller of pirated software is caught, they can be prosecuted, as Mondello recently found out.
"We've been much more aggressive in filing lawsuits this year and intend to send a clear message that auctioning counterfeit and unauthorized software will lead to serious penalties," Kupferschmid said.
Online auction site eBay may also be getting pulled into litigation over the sale of illegal software. The SIIA is considering suing the online retailer for secondary copyright infringement if they don't cooperate with the association. However, there are currently no plans to move forward with a lawsuit.