BEIJING, Jan. 15 -- Two men have been convicted of interfering with internet user's communication rights by a court in south China's Shenzhen, the Southern Metropolitan News reported Saturday.

    The Shenzhen Nanshan People's Court has held a hearing Friday in the country's first case involving stolen QQ numbers.

    The two convicts surnamed Yang and Zeng have each been sentenced to 6 months in prison. Illicitly acquired funds, totaling 61650 yuan, or about 7640 US dollars, has been retrieved by authorities.

    QQ is the most popular instant messaging computer program in China. Originally called OICQ when first released by Tencent Inc. in February 1999, the company has since changed its name to QQ.

    Zeng joined Tencent on May 31, 2004, and was later moved to the security center to monitor the company's operating system.

    On March 2005, he met Yang via the internet after buying a QQ number from him. The pair then plotted an illegal business making money selling stolen QQ numbers.

    Zeng decoded a former colleague's password, giving him access QQ user's private information including personal data, ID numbers and e-mail addresses. He then broke into Tencent's main system. Using the information provided by Zeng, Yang decoded user's seemingly theft proof information and changed their QQ passwords.

    From March to July of last year, they had sold nearly 130 QQ numbers after stealing them from unknowing users.

    As the court ruled a QQ account is not property as defined by China's current law, the pair was charged with severely infringing with others communication. Zeng and Yang pleaded guilty to the charges.

(Source: CRIENGLISH.com)