Vast software 'counterfeiting ring' smashed

China's Public Security Bureau (PSB), acting with the FBI, has made a number of raids and arrests in the past couple of weeks with the aim of cracking an alleged software-counterfeiting ring.

Microsoft claims the alleged counterfeiting syndicate, based in the south China province of Guangdong, is responsible for manufacturing and distributing more than $2bn worth of counterfeit Microsoft software.

Michala Alexander, head of anti-piracy for Microsoft UK, said: "We believe this is the largest software counterfeiting ring in history. It's certainly the largest anti-piracy operation we've been involved in to date. It's a big deal - a very big deal."

The PSB, acting with the FBI in Los Angeles, targeted the alleged sources behind the unauthorised commercial production of Microsoft software, software components and certificates of authenticity, Microsoft said in a statement on Tuesday.

Microsoft customers and resellers provided the company with 55,000 examples of counterfeit software, which Microsoft said was less than one per cent of the total number of copies allegedly produced by the gang.

Microsoft estimated the operation had produced between five and six million counterfeit software products.

Law-enforcement authorities and forensics specialists identified various replication plants involved in the CD production that were the source of counterfeit Microsoft products sold to business customers and consumers around the world, Microsoft said.

Most of the counterfeit copies were distributed in the US but the second-largest recipient was the UK, which received 15 per cent of the product, Alexander said. The counterfeit software was distributed in 27 countries on five continents, including Australia, Canada, Singapore, the Czech Republic and Korea.

The software contained unauthorised versions of 13 Microsoft products, including Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2003 and 2007, Windows XP and Windows Server. The counterfeits were produced in at least eight languages: Croatian, Dutch, English, German, Italian, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Spanish.

Tom Espiner writes for ZDNet UK