Sacramento, Calif. – United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner recently announced that a federal grand jury returned an indictment against Nicholas Summerlin and Angelica Parson, both 22, recently of Roseville, charging them with conspiracy to commit copyright infringement. The indictment also charges Summerlin with two counts of criminal copyright infringement.
This case is the product of an extensive investigation by the FBI’s Cyber Squad.
According to Assistant United States Attorney Matthew D. Segal of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Unit, who is prosecuting the case, the indictment alleges that Summerlin and Parson sold illegal copies of Adobe Creative Suite Master Collection 3, Microsoft Office 2007, and Rosetta Stone language software.
According to the indictment, each defendant received a cease-and-desist letter from Rosetta Stone, but nonetheless continued selling pirated software. The indictment alleges that in 330 separate transactions between October 27, 2008 and October 21, 2009, Summerlin sold software with a combined retail value of no less than $561,430.
If convicted of the charges, Summerlin and Parson face a maximum statutory penalty of five years in prison. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory sentencing factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.
The charges are only allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.