Banner Day in Auction Software Piracy Fight: SIIA Announces 26th Lawsuit of '08 and...

Banner Day in Auction Software Piracy Fight: SIIA Announces 26th Lawsuit of
'08 and Guilty Plea Entered in Auction Site Piracy Criminal Case

SIIA's Auction Litigation Program Provided Lead to Justice Department,
Resulting in Criminal Prosecution of Jeremiah Mondello, a Notorious eBay
Software Pirate

WASHINGTON, May 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Dramatic legal action against
auction site software pirates was announced today by the Software &
Information Industry Association (SIIA) and the Department of Justice. SIIA
filed nine new lawsuits against individual sellers of pirated software on
eBay, bringing its year-to-date total to 26 cases. Meanwhile a guilty plea
was entered by Jeremiah Mondello, one of the most notorious sellers of pirated
software on eBay.

The new lawsuits are part of SIIA's Auction Litigation Program, which was also
responsible for providing the DOJ with information that led to Mondello
pleading guilty to counts of copyright infringement, mail fraud and aggravated
identity theft. The latest round of lawsuits continues SIIA's commitment to
ramping up software auction enforcement in 2008. SIIA began with nine
lawsuits in February, filed an additional eight in March, and announced
another nine today. Each of the recent suits was filed in the US District
Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of SIIA member
companies, including Adobe Systems Incorporated and Symantec Corporation.

The most recent lawsuits charged all of the following with knowingly selling
software illegally on eBay: Edward Hackim of Raleigh, North Carolina; Debra
Taveira of Hopatcong, New Jersey; Luis Chang of Rowland Heights, California;
John Maiella of Henderson, Nevada; Max Acosta of Los Angeles, California; Joe
Bramble of Springport, Michigan; Christopher Cain of Staten Island, New York;
Gabrielle Berthelot-Leven of Medley, Florida; Guy Vinette and Matthew Sanchez
of Niagara Falls, New York.

In addition to these cases, SIIA teamed up with the Department of Justice
(DOJ) to pursue Jeremiah Mondello, an eBay seller who used stolen bank account
information to create more than 40 fictitious eBay and PayPal identities to
sell pirated software via the auction site.

Late Wednesday, Mondello, formerly a college student from the University of
Oregon, pled guilty before a district court in Oregon to charges of copyright
infringement, aggravated identity theft, and mail fraud -- and is facing both
extensive jail time and fines for his fraudulent sales, which amounted to a
five to six figure sales volume.

SIIA began investigating the eBay seller later discovered to be Mondello in
2007. Using data collected by SIIA's proprietary Auction Enforcement Tool,
SIIA identified Mondello through his eBay seller ID and determined there were
many more additional eBay identities that likely were being used by Mondello.
SIIA then referred all of its case information to the DOJ's Computer Crimes
and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS). DOJ investigators were able to
determine that Mondello was not just using a handful of falsified identities
-- he had created over 40 fictitious seller IDs. He accomplished this by
recording and stealing people's bank account information through a keystroke
logger that he distributed over the Internet. He then used that information
to set up false PayPal accounts using fictitious seller names. By creating
these fake seller IDs he was able to artificially inflate his relatively high
standing in the eBay marketplace, which he then used to attract sales and
deliver the pirated goods.

Keith Kupferschmid, SVP of Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement for
SIIA, noted that, "This case is a huge victory in the fight against software
piracy on eBay and other auction sites. Mondello stole innocent people's
personal information and used it on eBay to attract sales and deliver pirated
software to unsuspecting consumers. We applaud the DOJ for their tireless
efforts to promptly crack this difficult case and to put Mondello and those
like him where they belong -- behind bars. This case emphasizes why SIIA
remains so diligent and engaged when it comes to anti-piracy enforcement and
why consumers should be leery of any software deal that seems too good to be
true."

Mondello pled guilty to one charge of copyright infringement in the amount of
$400,000 to $1 million. That puts him at a certain level for sentencing under
the federal sentencing guidelines whereby he could get a maximum of five years
in prison, $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release; one count of
aggravated identity theft, which comes with a mandatory minimum of two years
in prison (this is not discretionary); and mail fraud, which comes with a
penalty of up to 20 years in jail, $250,000 fine and up to three years of
supervised release. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 23rd.

Scott Bain, SIIA Litigation Counsel, further stated that, "Unsuspecting
consumers and legitimate software sellers continue to be harmed by the large
number of counterfeit and other unauthorized products being advertised and
sold online, on sites such as eBay."

Auction sellers will be held accountable for the products they are selling,
Bain added, "regardless of whether they knew -- or claimed ignorance -- that
the products were counterfeit, or unauthorized OEM or other contraband (grey
market) software."

To date, the SIIA program has led to judgments and settlements against illegal
eBay sellers as well as other websites dealing in counterfeit, OEM, unbundled,
unauthorized education, and other versions of software not authorized for
Internet resale. Damages paid by defendants have run as high as several
hundred thousand dollars. SIIA also has successfully tracked and pursued the
upstream sources of some of these products, and will continue to do so.

The SIIA Auction Litigation Program aims to educate buyers and sellers on
auction sites as to the harms caused to all parties by illegal software
resale. Sellers can be prosecuted and buyers can be stuck with viruses, no
technical support and no recourse. In addition to the auction piracy lawsuits,
SIIA has also sought to protect legitimate sellers and unsuspecting buyers by
publishing software buying guides for auction sites, and implementing a
certification program for software sellers (Certified Software Resellers) to
help steer consumers of auctioned software to sellers who have promised to
sell only legal software.

About SIIA
The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is the principal trade
association for the software and digital content industry. SIIA provides
global services in government relations, business development, corporate
education and intellectual property protection to more than 550 leading
software and information companies. For further information, visit:
www.siia.net.

SOURCE Software & Information Industry Association

Keith Kupferschmid, SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement,
+1-202-789-4442, Scott Bain, Litigation Counsel, +1-202-789-4492, or Eileen
Bramlet, Communications, +1-202-789-4469, all of SIIA