Pirates selling XP for £2 raided

Singapore PC users thought they'd found a way around high licence fees... then came the ominous knock on the door...

By Will Sturgeon, 9 November 2001 16:21

NEWS Software pirates in Singapore who were selling bootlegged copies of Windows XP for as little as £2 have been hit hard in a co-ordinated police raid on seven locations across the region. Over 4,000 copies of pirated Microsoft software were confiscated in the raids in late October, and over 3,000 of those taken were illegal copies of the software giant's latest offering Windows XP which was released in Singapore on 26 October. Piracy rates in Singapore are higher than in any other part of the world, with a tradition for providing holiday-makers with rip-off watches and 'designer' clothes. However, the lucrative world of computer software has provided pirates with rich-pickings and the versions of XP confiscated, according to newswire reports, were not the first illegal copies of the operating systems to appear in the region. Those arrested in connection with the raids now face up to seven years in prison.

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