By Tim Conneally, Betanews

Two thousand dollars ($2,000) and two years of probation…after five years of investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) division and three years of litigation.

That was the sentence for Michael Uszakow, 46, of Houston Texas, in the U.S. District Court of Connecticut this week. His "Conspiracy to Commit Criminal Copyright Infringement" took place when he participated in the cracking/warez scene.

Uszakow was indicted for accessing warez FTP sites called "Nite Ranger Hideout" and "The Ether Net (TEN)" between 2002 and 2003, and uploading about 3.195 copyrighted files, and downloading 7,296 copyrighted files. Among the files in Uszakow's transaction, he was charged with trading cracked versions of MasterCam 9.1, AutoCad 2004, and BEA WebLogic Server 8.1.

According to the 2008 indictment, "all defendants herein, and others known and unknown, knowingly did conspire, combine, confederate, and agree to commit offensesagainst the United States…[and] willfully to infringe the copyright of a copyrighted work for purposes of commercial advantage and private financial gain, willfully to infringe the copyright of a copyrighted work by the reproduction and distribution, including by electronic means, during a 180-day period, of one ormore copies of one or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000."

Uszakow pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy in August, which carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine or alternatively, twice the gross gain to the defendant or loss to the U.S. resulting from the offense. In February filed a motion requesting a "non guideline sentence," based on U.S. v. Crosby which brought Uszakow the mandatory minimum sentence instead.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010