Connecticut Man Pleads Guilty to Criminal Copyright Infringement

United States Attorney Kevin J. O'Connor announced that JUSTIN McCOBB, age 23, of 13 Helen Road, Branford, Connecticut, waived indictment and pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Hartford, Connecticut to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement.

According to court documents, from approximately January 2002 through June 2002, JUSTIN McCOBB and others conspired to distribute unauthorized copies of copyrighted works, such as Adobe Illustrator 10, Adobe Pagemaker 7, and AutoDesk AutoCAD 2002. In pleading guilty, McCOBB admitted that he and others had obtained unauthorized (or "pirated") copies of copyrighted software and then sold those copies for profit, using various online auction services, such as eBay.com. Altogether, McCOBB and his co-conspirators were responsible for distributing almost $40,000 in pirated software.

United States Attorney O'Connor stated that "stealing the intellectual property of others is no different from any other form of thievery. It is a priority of this Office to protect the intellectual property rights of our nation's inventors and creators."

When sentenced by United States District Judge Alvin W. Thompson, McCOBB faces a sentence of up to five years' imprisonment, three years' supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Shawn J. Chen.

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