Four men were recently charged in a Hangzhou court for making and selling pirated stock trading software.

Zhang Yanbo, who has a master's degree in medicine, opened a stock market analysis company after graduation in 2008 offering his own software, but it was not popular on the market.

So in March last year, he started to sell pirated software at three online shops - programs that had been decoded and modified by brothers Ma Rongda and Ma Rongchao, according to court documents. The fourth arrested was a former college classmate of one of the brothers.

Zhang was arrested in March this year, with the investigation finding sales of more than 530,000 yuan ($83,300) in illegal software. He could face a sentence of three to seven years in prison.

(Source: China Daily)