A federal grand jury in San Francisco has indicted three men in what prosecutors are calling the largest bust of pirated CDs in U.S. history.
The indictment follows the arrest of Ye Teng Wen, Hao He, and Yaobin Zhai on charges of illegally reproducing 325,000 music and software CDs. Two of the men are American citizens and one has a U.S. work permit, said a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for Northern California, Reuters reported.
The piracy of music and software represents a potential loss of millions of dollars to the artists and businesses that legitimately own the copyrights on these works, U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan said in a statement.
Prosecutors said the pirated CDs, which included Latin music and Symantec computer security software, circulated widely and one of the disks was found at a store in Chicago.
The three men, who live near San Francisco, have been released on bail and will appear in court on October 27.
