Singapore police have broken what they called a major software piracy syndicate, arresting 18 people and seizing items with an estimated street value of S$50m ($30m). The raids, conducted this Tuesday, uncovered 450,000 CDs, VCDs and CD-ROMs in what police said was the largest seizure they had ever made. The CD-ROMs contained compilations of mainly games and business software, selling at well below the price of legitimate products. For example, a pirated copy of Microsoft Windows software would sell for around S$15, compared with around S$500 for the genuine product. Under Singapore law, those convicted of software piracy can be fined up to S$10,000 or jailed for a maximum of 5 years or both.
