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Oahu man
pleads guilty to
copyright piracy

His illegal selling of Adobe
Systems software on the 'Net cost
the firm $490,644 in revenues

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By Tim Ruel
Star-Bulletin

A 21-year-old Honolulu resident faces several months in prison after pleading guilty to criminal copyright infringement against Adobe Systems Inc. by distributing software over the Internet pirated from the software giant.

Jeffrey Alan Stockton yesterday admitted in United States District Court in Eugene, Ore., to reselling illegal copies of software for a substantial personal gain, costing Adobe an estimated $490,644 in retail revenues.

Sean Hoar, assistant U.S. attorney in Eugene, said today that the government has direct evidence that Stockton committed copyright infringement between January 1998 and January 2000, while Stockton was a journalism student at the University of Oregon.

Stockton is scheduled for sentencing in Eugene on April 17. He faces a guideline ranging from 15 to 21 months in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000 and full restitution to San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe, the No. 1 maker of graphic-design software.

Agents already have seized $4,600 in cash and more than $9,000 from Stockton's bank account, which will go to Adobe as part of the restitution.

In December 1999, the Eugene Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation discovered Stockton was selling the software, Hoar said.

A month later, search warrants were served on Stockton's Oregon apartment, car, post office box and bank account. Agents retrieved computer equipment and software that provided a critical amount of evidence.

After several months of confering, the U.S. Attorney's Office filed its charges against Stockton in November, Hoar said.

Stockton, raised in Honolulu, recently returned to the state after graduating with a journalism degree from Oregon in August, and has been handling public relations as a volunteer at a local information technology company.

Stockton probably hasn't needed a paying job with the cash he's generated with the Adobe Software, Hoar said.

Stockton primarily operated by reselling repackaged CD-ROM copies of Adobe's Photoshop image-editing software for $130 apiece -- a quarter of the shelf price.

Stockton also had resold Adobe's Illustrator graphics-design software.

He passed himself off as working for a company called SpectrGrafx, operating under the alias of Frank Jacob.

"It's a really no-expense complete profit endeavor," Hoar said.

"When you're talking about a $400,000 loss, you're obviously talking about hundreds of incidents."

Since customers were reached over the Internet, they could technically be anywhere, Hoar said. However, he noted the government has evidence of several U.S. transactions.

Because of the large amount of planning that went into the endeavor, Stockton has agreed to stricter sentencing guidelines, Hoar said.

Stockton's attorney with the federal public defender's office in Eugene could not be reached for immediate comment.

Adobe, a $10.8 billion software development company, reported today that its U.S. sales of all its product lines are slowing because of a weak economy.

Shares in the company, traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market, fell $9.06 today to $43.69.