Illinois Man Pleads Guilty To More Than $100,000 In Rosetta Stone Software Piracy

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Christopher M. Adkins, 36, of Aurora, Ill., pleaded guilty today to felony criminal copyright infringement, in connection with his sale of counterfeit copies of Rosetta Stone language-learning software. 

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Acting Assistant Attorney General Mythili Raman for the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement after the plea was accepted by United States District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee. 

Adkins’s sentencing has been scheduled for September 13, 2013, when he will face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

According to court documents, over more than three years, Adkins sold more than $100,000 in copyright-infringing computer software.  He sold the software through the Internet website Learningpartners.mybisi.com operated from his home in Aurora.

Adkins admitted that he downloaded pirated versions of Rosetta Stone language-learning products, including Spanish, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, German, and Korean, and then would copy the programs onto compact discs; he would then sell the discs to online customers for prices more than 50 percent of the manufacturer’s suggested retail price for legitimate product.  Mr. Adkins admitted he made at least $100,000 as part of his scheme.  

            The case was investigated by Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Washington Field Office. 

Senior Counsel Thomas Dougherty of the Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and Assistant United States Attorney Jay Prabhu prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae.  Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.vaed.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.uspci.uscourts.gov.