Web Site Forfeited in Bogus Software Case

A federal judge sentenced two Spanish citizens living in Los Angeles to 21 months in prison and ordered them to pay $900,000 and forfeit their Web site for selling counterfeit copies of software made by Microsoft Corp., Adobe Systems Inc., Autodesk Inc. and other companies on the Internet.

The order is “believed to be the first ever criminal forfeiture of a Web site in an intellectual property case,” federal prosecutors said.

Maria Lirola and Francisco Joyanes pleaded guilty on Jan. 7 to copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. They agreed to forfeit to the government about $900,000, a 2000 Corvette convertible and their Web site, prosecutors said.

Lirola, 34, and Joyanes, 26, made copies of software, which they sold between March 1998 and September through their Web site or Internet auction sites. Their business began in Spain under the name Bestprice.