The golden era of piracy in Poland is slowly coming to an end. The improvement of society’s financial situation, as well as easier and cheaper access to legal content (also thanks to the emergence of streaming services) have meant that fewer and fewer people take the easy way and look for free – and at the same time not entirely legal – alternatives.
They traded Windows keys. They face up to 10 years in prison
This does not mean that the problem of piracy has ceased to exist. There are still many people and organized groups who make money by trading pirated software. The Warsaw prosecutor’s office filed an indictment against members of an organized criminal group that was involved in the illegal distribution of activation keys for Microsoft products.
It concerns the trading of keys for Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 and Microsoft Office 2013, 2015 and 2019 packages. The practice took place at least from November 2015 to November 2019.
The sale took place via auction and the “buy now” option and consisted of bidding on the auction or the fee indicated in the “buy now” option and then making the payment. The descriptions included in the auctions and low prices from PLN 39 to PLN 149 encouraged purchases and thus generated huge profits for sellers. After receiving the fee, the seller sent the activation key along with the website address www.microsoft.com, from which the ISO image of a specific program was downloaded, the activation of which was possible using the auctioned key.
– explains Aleksandra Skrzyniarz, spokesman for the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw, quoted by TVN24.
The investigation files show that the criminals sold a total of PLN 4 million, which exposed the injured party (Microsoft) to losses of PLN 174 million. The defendants are also accused of money laundering and marking goods with counterfeit marks.
Beware of pirated Windows and Office keys. You may be targeted by hackers
Using pirated software is not only illegal, but may also expose us to additional problems. that often, along with pirated Windows activation keys, we receive remote access trojans (RAT) and cryptocurrency mining malware as a “gift”.
Source: Gazeta
Mabel is a talented author and journalist with a passion for all things technology. As an experienced writer for the 247 News Agency, she has established a reputation for her in-depth reporting and expert analysis on the latest developments in the tech industry.
