Eighth man pleads guilty in $100 million Microsoft software piracy case

Microsoft has a persistent problem with Chinese software takeaways

A CHINESE CHAP based in Kansas, USA, is probably feeling pretty unlucky this week, after accepting that the suggestion that he was involved in a $100m piracy case was a fair cop.

The dude, known as Wen Tao Liu and Orland Liu is 37, he was in court this week in Kansas when he offered his guilty plea in a $100 million piracy case, according to the Kansas City Star.

The local paper reports that an investigation into this Microsoft profits takeaway started in 2013 after it was noticed that someone had picked up a boatload of moody Windows software keys from China and was selling them.

Liu, who had popped back to China in 2016 was pinched when he hit Dallas Airport. When he was arrested he was said to be in possession of 318,000 unauthorised Microsoft product key codes, which have a reported value of $79,000,000 to Microsoft.

Liu was caught in a sting operation when he sold 500 Lenovo related Microsoft key codes for $35,000, which suggests that he places a much lower value on his booty than Microsoft does. He is the eighth person to be arrested in this case.

In March this year, Microsoft worked with the Chinese government and China Electronics Technology Group (CTEC) in order to create an adapted version of Windows 10 for the Chinese market.

Alain Crozier, CEO of Microsoft Greater China told China Daily: "We have already developed the first version of the Windows 10 government secure system. It has been tested by three large enterprise customers… We have worked extensively to make it secure and controllable. We are now ready to serve the market."

Previously the Chinese government had banned Windows 8 for perhaps having spyware. We don't think that the Chinese ministers dislike spyware, just that they don't like it when anyone else is doing it.