30 arrested for using fake Metropasses

An enforcement blitz in Scarborough has resulted in 30 transit riders being caught with fake TTC Metropasses.

The riders with phony passes face almost 100 charges, including fraud.

The problem of bogus tokens and passes continues to be a major problem for the TTC. The commission says it loses millions of dollars every year from these types of counterfeit schemes.

Toronto police Const. Laura Middleton said officers found the bogus passes by doing random checks.

"We had special constables and Toronto police officers riding the buses and set up at the Scarborough Town Centre. And we checked every pass that came on the bus or came through the Scarborough Town Centre," she said Thursday.

TTC special constable Mark Russell said the illegal passes were almost identical to the real ones.

"They would photocopy a colour copy of an authentic pass just on regular paper and they would use the glue sticks to adhere them to plastic card stocks," he said.

Half of the people arrested during last week's operation were younger than 20. Most are minors and cannot be identified.

The TTC says it seizes about 500 bogus passes every month.

The TTC eliminated paper tickets last fall, in part to cut down on counterfeit ones.

Metal tokens were replaced three years ago with new ones harder to duplicate but fake ones are turning up in cash boxes.

The TTC says it will take new measures to cut down on counterfeiting. Details are expected in the next few weeks.

Chinese software pirates get prison sentences

The alleged ringleaders of a Chinese counterfeiting gang that sold at least US$2 billion worth of bogus Microsoft Corp. software were sentenced to prison terms of up to 6 1/2 years, in what is believed to be the harshest penalties yet under China's tightened piracy laws.

The punishments meted out against the 11 defendants, and announced by Microsoft Corp., could help China improve its image as a country that doesn't crack down hard enough on copyright violators, though the technology and entertainment industries still say China has a long way to go. The sentences ranged from 1 1/2 to 6 1/2 years, according to Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft.

The fact that Microsoft, and not the Chinese courts, disclosed the sentences is not unusual. Lawyers are the only source of information in many cases in China because rulings often are not publicly announced. Court officials usually refuse to disclose details to reporters.

Microsoft calls the counterfeit software operation -- which was headquartered in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong and busted by Chinese authorities with help from the FBI in 2007 -- the world's biggest phony-software syndicate.

The counterfeit software was found in 36 countries and 11 different languages. It was so sophisticated that it contained legitimate computer code written by Microsoft for programs such as Windows XP and Vista and Microsoft Office, but also had touches of the criminals' own coding as well. That was allegedly added to mimic security programs and fool users into believing the product was authentic.

Microsoft contends that much of the bogus software was detected by its Windows Genuine Advantage program, which is automatically installed on users' machines. It scans computers for pirated software and alerts people if it believes their products aren't properly licensed. The counterfeits were also discovered through customs seizures, test purchases by Microsoft, and resellers who alerted authorities to suspicious competitors.

"There were a number of things that made this case unique and striking, and among them are the fact that customers provided information, the reach of the syndicate was so international, and that Chinese law enforcement partnered so well with American law enforcement," David Finn, Microsoft's associate general counsel for worldwide anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting, said in an interview.

Software piracy is still rampant despite individual countries' attempts at cracking down. Research commissioned by the Business Software Alliance, an industry trade group, found that 82 percent of the software used in China in 2007 was not legitimately purchased, more than double the worldwide piracy rate of 38 percent.