Piracy doesn't pay. Well, not always. We do hear stories of spammers or mass pirates making millions, but more often than not someone who tries to make a profit out of piracy ends up getting caught and paying hefty fines. Just recently, we heard about the fellow who was selling pirated copies of Adobe software and ended up getting six years in jail for it.

It's happened again. A pirate has now been caught and sentenced to a whopping seven years, making it one of the longest sentences for software piracy ever. Nathan Peterson was selling illegal copies of backup software from various companies, using Google ad words to generate traffic, and ended up making over $20 Million from the deal. On top of getting a very long sentence, he will be forced to pay out huge fines:

Typically, software pirates get an average of 22 months in prison. But the hefty sentence dished out to Peterson last Friday by the US District Court in Alexandria reflects the amount of damage caused - nearly double the average software piracy case. Peterson pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal copyright infringement last December. At the Court appearance he also agreed to pay the huge sum of $5.4m in restitution, eight times the average fine.
Of course, for the "average Joe pirate" the increased fines and penalties mean little, being that they are focusing exclusively on those who profit from selling illegal copies. Either way, you have to wonder how the ones making millions can expect to get away with it. $20 Million? Ridiculous.