Grant Gross
Senior Writer

Four plead guilty in auction software piracy scheme

news
Apr 26, 20072 mins

Combined, the men sold more than $19 million worth of pirated Rockwell Automation software on eBay

Four men have pleaded guilty in U.S. court in Wisconsin to selling copyrighted software on eBay.com, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.

Pleading guilty in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin were Eric Neil Barber of Manila, Arkansas; Phillip Buchanan of Hampton, Georgia; Wendell Jay Davis of Las Vegas; and Craig J. Svetska, of West Chicago, Illinois, the DOJ said.

The four sold counterfeit Rockwell Automation software with a retail value of more than $19.1 million through eBay, the DOJ said. The defendants each face up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Three other defendants have also received felony convictions in the case.

Rockwell Automation produces specialized factory management software. Most of the software sold by these defendants on eBay had retail prices ranging from about $900 to $11,325.

Barber acknowledged that he initiated 217 eBay auctions for Rockwell Automation software between April 2003 and August 2004, the DOJ said. Barber’s profit was about $32,500, while the retail value of the software was more than $1.4 million.

Between January and August 204, Buchanan offered 67 auctions, generating a profit of about $13,100, the DOJ said. The retail value of the software was more than $2 million.

Davis offered auctions for 53 pieces of Rockwell software between February 2003 and August 2004. He made about $17,000 on software with a retail value of nearly $8 million, the DOJ said.

Svetska initiated 376 auctions between June and August 2004, the DOJ said. He made a profit of about $59,700 on software with a retail value of more than $7.6 million.

In addition to the Wisconsin pleas, there have been two convictions in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan and another in the Southern District of Indiana. The combined retail value of the counterfeit software in all seven cases is about $25 million, the DOJ said.

Grant Gross

Grant Gross, a senior writer at CIO, is a long-time IT journalist who has focused on AI, enterprise technology, and tech policy. He previously served as Washington, D.C., correspondent and later senior editor at IDG News Service. Earlier in his career, he was managing editor at Linux.com and news editor at tech careers site Techies.com. As a tech policy expert, he has appeared on C-SPAN and the giant NTN24 Spanish-language cable news network. In the distant past, he worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in Minnesota and the Dakotas. A finalist for Best Range of Work by a Single Author for both the Eddie Awards and the Neal Awards, Grant was recently recognized with an ASBPE Regional Silver award for his article “Agentic AI: Decisive, operational AI arrives in business.”

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