Upping the ante against global software piracy, a major software counterfeiting syndicate based out of Guangdong in Southern China reportedly has been busted.

The crime syndicate is allegedly responsible for manufacturing and distributing over $2 billion worth of counterfeit Microsoft software, that was found in 27 countries across 5 continents of the globe.

The fake software contained fake versions of 13 of Microsoft's most popular products, including Windows Vista, Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Office 2003, Windows XP, and Windows Server.

Produced in at least 8 languages including Croatian, Dutch, English, German, Italian, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish, the counterfeit software -- nearly 55,000 copies -- was all traceable to the crime syndicate based out of South China.

Interestingly, the confiscated software copies still account for less than 1 percent of the millions of such copies estimated to have been produced and shipped to distributors and countries around the world.

The investigation, which spanned a couple of years, was led by FBI Los Angeles and China's Public Security Bureau (PSB), and aided by Microsoft Corp along with hundreds of Microsoft customers.

Following tip-offs from the FBI and Microsoft, law enforcement authorities and forensic experts traced several replication plant lines involved in the illegal commercial production of Microsoft software and software components that had been shipped and sold to countries across the globe (including India).

Commending the investigation, Brad Smith, senior vice president and general counsel at Microsoft, said, "Microsoft deeply appreciates the work of China's Public Security Bureau in taking such strong enforcement action with these arrests and raids in Southern China. This case represents a milestone in the fight against software piracy - governments, law enforcement agencies, and private companies working together with customers and software resellers to break up a massive international counterfeiting ring. This case should serve as a wake-up call to counterfeiters. Customers around the world are turning you in, governments and law enforcement have had enough, and private companies will act decisively to protect intellectual property."

As per a BSA-IDC Global Software Piracy Study, last year, India lost nearly $1,250 million to software piracy -- up from $367 million in
2003.

The study estimates that a 10-point drop in piracy levels by 2009 would lead to the creation of over one lakh jobs apart from increasing India's GDP by $5.9 billion.

Globally speaking, the study estimates that counterfeiting robs the software industry of almost $40 billion every year...