Five people in Jiangsu province’s Donghai county were arrested for the illegal sale of items from Shanda’s (Nasdaq: SNDA) in-house developed MMORPG "The World of Legend" after downloading client-end programs and running private servers for the game, reports Xinhuanet.com.

Li Shengjie and Chen Huan began operating the game under the name "Tian Xia Chuan Qi" in October 2006, said the report. The operation expanded to 94 servers, taking in operating revenue of over RMB 2 million and profit of RMB 500,000 by December, 2007, the report said.

Li was sentenced to three years in prison and fined RMB 500,000 by the Donghai County Court, while the other four defendants received lesser punishments, said the report. (Source)

I don’t have any further details, but this is certainly interesting. Three years in jail is serious stuff, and the fine is quite significant as well.

Can’t speculate on the effect of something like this, but as an IP lawyer, all I can say is thumbs up to the authorities on this one. I hope to see more of this in the future.