Microsoft Buries Chinese Tomato Garden

Four Chinese men found guilty of illegally distributing Windows XP via their Tomato Garden site have been sentenced to jail and fined.

For Microsoft, it’s a big victory. In China, home of so much illegal software, four men were found guilty of reproducing and illegally selling copies of the Windows XP OS.

They’d been selling the illegal software through a site called Tomato Garden, which is not longer in operation.

Hong Lei and another man, who were behind the site, were each fined $146,000 and given three years in jail. Two other men received sentences of two years.

It’s symbolic of the new, tougher Chinese stance on piracy, which has been so endemic in the country, which much of the software on Chinese computers illegal. However, some think it still has a long way to go, such as Congressman Howard Berman of California. He’s been visiting Beijing and said in a statement:

"China’s efforts to stop intellectual property theft have been weak and ineffective — heavy on tough talk but light on implementation."

"Hundreds of websites provide downloads and links to pirated movies, recordings and games."