Author of Windows XP “Tomato Garden” Edition arrested in China

August 21st, 2008

The Chinese IT community is abuzz with news of the recent arrest of Hong Lei, author of the popular pirated Windows XP “Tomato Garden” Edition software. I’m not sure where the wacky “Tomato Garden” name came from but it’s no laughing matter – this pirated edition of Windows XP is estimated to be installed in many tens of millions of Chinese computers.

The pirated “Tomato Garden” edition of Windows XP is so popular in China because it does not require product activation, includes software/themes that beautifies the Windows XP user interface and comes packaged with other useful free + pirated software tools.

At one point Hong Lei earned more than 40,000 RMB per month, with most of the revenue coming from advertisements on his highly trafficked website www.tomatolei.com where the software is distributed, and payments from companies (eachnet.com and Yahoo China for example) for new subscribers that sign up for or use their services after installation.

The arrest was probably instigated by a complaint from Microsoft to the Chinese authorities, who are usually quite lax about enforcing intellectual property rights. While this is a step in the right direction, I don’t believe it is the start of a broad crackdown on software/music pirates in China – perhaps the authorities are just trying to demonstrate that they are at least doing something about the piracy problem amidst strong pressure and complaints from foreign software/music businesses.

Windows XP Tomato Edition