Hong Lei, webmaster of Tomatolei.com and maker of the pirated edition of Windows XP in China, has been sentenced to 3.5 years in jail in addition to a fine of CNY1 million.

According to information from Microsoft in local media, the punishments were announced by the People's Court of Huqiu district of Suzhou during the first instance.

Apart from Hong, other people and companies involved in the case were also punished, including Hong's partner Sun Xianzhong, who received the same sentence as Hong; Zhang Tianping, marketing director of Chengdu Share Software Net Science and Technologies, who was sentenced to two years in jail and a fine of CNY100,000; and Liang Zhuoyong, who participated in the development of the Windows XP Tomato Garden Edition and was sentenced to two years in jail and fined CNY100,000.

Chengdu Share Software Net Science and Technologies, which ran the download website Tomatolei.com, had its income of CNY2.92 million confiscated and was fined CNY8.77 million.