The gaming industry has grown exponentially over the past few decades, and has quickly been realized as one of the most powerful divisions of the entertainment sphere. As with movies and music, games have also been impacted heavily by piracy and re-sales. However, agencies around the globe are aware of this fact, and have worked hard to make sure that piracy remains as forbidden as possible.
Just yesterday, 36-year old Qiang Bi of Powell, Ohio, was sentenced to two and a half year of prison, in addition to being fined $367,669 dollars for selling counterfeit PC games between 2005 and 2009. Qiang had kept details regarding thousands of illegal sales in a spreadsheet which caught the eye of Nationwide after Qiang had transferred the file between e-mail accounts. Selling the games at a mere $10 each, investigators estimated that the value of the titles would have been $700,000 at retail.
This isn’t the first time someone has been in big trouble for selling copyrighted software. Piracy seems to be everywhere, and while the PlayStation 3 has remained moderately protected, thanks in-part to Sony (although this may soon change), the PlayStation Portable has been hit more than most formats. The moral of the story is to pay for your games, and as a result you get to help out the amazing developers out there such as Naughty Dog, Insomniac and Guerrilla Games. Who wouldn’t want to show these guys that we love their products?
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