A Chinese national was set to plead guilty Monday for his role in a massive $100 million online software piracy scheme that authorities said was "one of the most significant copyright infringement cases ever uncovered."
According to Delaware federal court papers, Xiang Li has agreed to plead guilty to two federal charges related to the selling, without authorization, of high-end software programs for a fraction of their retail worth.
The indictment (.pdf) accused Li of cracking access controls on the pirated software, which included titles like Agilent Advanced Design System with a retail value of $229,000. The indictment said he and a co-conspirator sold the design software for $60 on sites like crack99, cad100 and dongle-crack-download. Another title, Ansys Ansoft Designer 3.5, which retailed for roughly $41,000, sold for $40, according to the indictment.
Li and an associate who has not pleaded guilty, reaped just $60,000 in profits from the sale of $100 million worth of software between 2008 and 2011, according to the indictment. By comparison, the government said indicted file-sharing service Megaupload's "estimated harm" to copyright holders was "well in excess of $500 million."
In all, 2,000 titles were advertised on Li's websites, according to the indictment. The high-end software had numerous applications, including defense, engineering, manufacturing, space exploration, aerospace simulation and design, mathematics, storm water management, explosive simulation, and manufacturing plant design.
The case was unearthed by the Homeland Security Investigations unit of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The authorities have scheduled a press conference for Tuesday to announce Li's plea deal. According to court documents, the authorities made numerous undercover buys from the defendant.
The announcement by ICE claims it's "one of the most significant copyright infringement cases ever uncovered -- and dismantled -- by ICE's Homeland Security Investigations."
One of Li's customers included Cosburn Wedderburn, who was an electronics engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, according to court papers. (.pdf) He purchased pirated software programs with an estimated retail value exceeding $1.2 million. They included programs for electrical engineering, aerospace, telecommunications design and electronic design automation, the authorities said.
Wedderburn is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty last year for his role in the scheme.
Meanwhile, Li's plea agreement, in which the authorities dropped dozens of counts, does not specify an exact prison sentence. But he might receive less time than the record 5-year term handed to a Virginia man last week for being the leader of an in-theater camcording gang known as IMAGiNE.
Federal sentencing guidelines are nuanced and factor criminal history, acceptance of responsibility and other considerations.
Delaware federal prosecutors said that, if Li's "offense level" is greater than "16," which has a range of 21 to 57 months, they'll seek to reduce the level by one point, according to court records. An offense level of "15" caries a prison range of 18 to 51 months.
