A US man has been convicted of offences against the Digital Millennium Copyright Act over the sale of counterfeit Microsoft product activation keys.

Adonis Gladney, 24, is reportedly the first person to be convicted under provisions in the law that ban the circumvention of security controls in software. Following his conviction of one count of violating the DMCA and three counts of mail fraud, Gladney is likely to be sentenced to a spell behind bars, Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig Missakian told CNet.

The bogus software licences, for volumes of between 25 and 750 users, were purchased from sites including abovegroundsolutions.com and agsolutionsspc.com established by Gladney, who supplied CDs loaded with Microsoft software alongside pirated activation codes.

The US Marine Corp was among those who unwittingly purchased bogus software licences from Gladney, a factor likely to count against him when it comes around to sentencing. Gladney reportedly earned $3m through the scam before he was collared by investigators, led by agents from the FBI, who seized $74,038 and two custom-built Lamborghini sport cars. ®