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6 plead guilty in $100 million software piracy case
Six people pleaded guilty to charges related to more than $100 million in stolen software.
Six people pleaded guilty to charges related to more than $100 million in stolen software such as Windows XP that authorities said was one of the largest such piracy schemes prosecuted by the US government.
Tammy Dickinson, US attorney for the western district of Missouri, said the case involved more than $100 million worth of stolen or counterfeit software products, including about 170,000 access codes for Adobe Systems and Microsoft products, including Windows 7 and Windows XP. Product key codes are used to obtain access to various copyrighted software programs.
Federal authorities also confiscated more than $20 million in assets, including $10 million from bank and investment accounts and 27 pieces of real estate valued at a total of about $10 million, Dickinson said. Authorities estimate the defendants made about $30 million in profits from selling the pirated software.
"Software piracy is a significant economic crime that victimizes not only software developers and manufacturers, but unwitting customers," she said.
The prosecutor's office also said Microsoft and other software developers have filed civil lawsuits against "many of these defendants."
The investigation, which is ongoing, began in 2013 when authorities learned Casey Lee Ross of Kansas City was buying and re-selling about 30,000 product key codes and other items that allowed access to copyrighted software products. The prosecutor's office said Ross bought the illicit codes well below their market value from sources in China, Singapore and Europe and then resold them to four of the other defendants, who then sold the codes again online.
Ross was accused of obtaining "unauthorized, stolen, illicit, copied, and previously used product key codes using a variety of methods." Prosecutors said in the charging document that some of the software was clearly marked as being promotional, not for resale or academic licensed.
Ross pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to defraud the US. His sentencing is scheduled for February.
Four of the other defendants who pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme are: Rex Yang of Seattle; Matthew Lockwood, of Denver; Reza Davachi, of Damascus, Maryland, and Arunachalam Annamalai, a citizen of India who lives in Las Vegas, Nevada.
A sixth defendant, Jake Schwartz of Seattle, pleaded guilty to a charge accusing him of knowing about Yang's involvement in the conspiracy and helping conceal it.
Tom Burt, Microsoft vice president and deputy general counsel, said consumers are the "real victims" of these schemes.
"The real victims in these types of cases are consumers who may unknowingly purchase software online they think is legitimate, but instead end up being scammed by fraudsters into purchasing unlicensed software," he said Thursday in an email provided by a public relations firm.
He said in some cases consumers are exposing themselves to spyware, malware and viruses that enable cybercriminals to steal their data, their identity and render their computers completely inoperable.

Nokia C1 Smartphone With Android 5.0 Lollipop in the Works

After launching its first Android tablet in November, the Nokia N1, the Finnish firm is now rumoured to be working on an Android 5.0 Lollipop-based smartphone called Nokia C1. If the rumour is true and smartphone is released as the Nokia C1, the firm would be breaching the Microsoft acquisition agreement.
According to Techweb, Nokia is working on a device codenamed Nokia C1 that runs a custom build of Android 5.0 Lollipop based on the Nokia Z Launcher.

The tipped specifications by the Chinese blog (via Phonearena) include a 5-inch display; an Intel processor coupled with 2GB of RAM; 32GB internal storage; an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 5-megapixel front camera for the alleged Nokia C1.

To remind you about the Microsoft-Nokia acquisition agreement, the Finnish company Nokia can no longer use the Nokia brand on smartphones till Q4 2016, and on feature phones for 10 years. To bypass the restriction, Nokia may very well launch the smartphone under a different brand.

Microsoft had completed the acquisition of the devices and services division of Nokia in in April this year. After the deal, Nokia was left with its core network equipment and services business, Here mapping and navigation unit, and Nokia Technologies. Since then the two new consumer-facing products from Nokia have been the Z Launcher and the N1 tablet.

Earlier this month, Nokia announced its Here maps app will only be developed by it for Android and iOS, while Microsoft would take over development of the application for the Windows Phone platform.

Last month, Nokia had announced its "first Nokia-branded Android tablet" called the Nokia N1. The tablet will be launched in China in Q1 2015 with a brand-licensing agreement extending to an OEM partner (Foxconn) that will manufacture, distribute, and sell it.

The Nokia N1 will cost $249 (roughly Rs. 15,400) before taxes, and will be made available in other markets globally, said company during the unveiling. The Nokia N1 features a 7.9-inch (2048x1536 pixel) IPS LED-backlit display protected by Gorilla Glass 3; a 64-bit 2.3GHz Intel Atom Z3580 processor (4 cores, 4 threads) coupled with a PowerVR G6430 GPU; 2GB of LPDDR3 (800MHz) RAM; 32GB of inbuilt storage (non-expandable); an 8-megapixel rear autofocus camera; a 5-megapixel fixed focus camera; 5300mAh battery, and predictive Nokia Z Launcher interface on top of Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Android M stands for Marshmallow:
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To 6 features of Android 6.0Android M stands for Marshmallow: Top 6 features of Android 6.0 that went on for months, Google has finally announced its next Android iteration will be named after the sweet treat Marshmallow. So, now M is for Marshmallow.Marshmallow was one of the highly speculated name that fits Google’s nomenclature of sweet treats like – Cup Cake, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, KitKat and Lollipop. It beat other probable names like mud pie, mousse, and our very favourite Malai Barfi.The company revealed the name on its developers blog and alongside also revealed thefinalAndroid 6.0SDK that will be available for download via the SDK Manager inAndroid Studio. It will bring access to final Android APIsand latest build tools.“Today with the final Developer Preview update, we’re introducing the official Android 6.0 SDK and opening Google Play for publishing your apps that target the new API level 23 in Android Marshmallow,” Jamal Eason, Product Manager, Android writes in ablogpost.Marshmallow brings new platform features such as fingerprint scanner and Doze power saving mode, but along with that also offers new permissions model.Google Play is also made ready to accept API 23apps via the Google Play Developer Console. At the consumer launch later this year, the Google Play store will be updated so that the app install and update process supports the new permissions model for apps using API 23.“Classes for detecting and parsing bar codes are available in the com.google.android.gms.vision.barcode namespace. The BarcodeDetector class is the main workhorse — processing Frame objects to return a SparseArray types,” he further adds.Google has also revaled its new lawn statue similar to the droid seen above.Needless to say, Android Marshmallow brings new app permissions, custom Chrome Tabs, fingerprint support and improved power management.Take a look at some of its cool new features announced earlier this year:App Permissions The App Permissions got a major overhaul and Google will allow users to decide which permissions they want to allow or revoke, basedon when those particular functions are used. Unlike the current implementation, where users have to agree to all app permissions on first install and also for updates, in Android M, users will get notifications asking for permissions only when they are using a particular function inan app.Google has identified eight parameters including location, camera, contacts and so on, to help you give permissions for these. So for instance, in WhatsApp if you want to send a voice message, the App Permissions tab will pop up, asking you for permission to use the microphone. You can also revoke the permission later if you so wish. Also, app updates will also not ask you for permissions off the bat, unless you are using a feature whichneeds you to grant that particular app some permission.Web Experience: Custom Chrome TabsThe web browsing experience with the Chrome browser also gets a shot in the arm. Chrome Custom tabs, a new feature, that will let you include webviews within a particular app, without the need to switch to the Chrome browser on your phone. The Chrome browser will run atop your app (in case you click on any link within the app). Features such as automatic sign-in, saved passwords, autofill will work on the apps seamlessly. Also the Chrome Custom tab will take up the colours and fonts of the app it is being opened within, to make it seem like a seamless experience. In principle it seems closer to Facebook’s Instant Articles, with the difference being that the Chrome Custom tabs will make you feel like you are within the app that you are browsing.App LinkingAndroid currently supports the app linking system, also known as Intents, which gives you the choice to open a particular web link in a webbrowser or an app. Before, if you