Hong Lei, the webmaster of Tomatolei.com and writer of Windows XP Tomato Edition, is reported to have been taken into custody by the Suzhou Public Security Bureau.
Tomatolei.com was founded in 2003, offering downloads of the latest Windows XP Tomato Edition and other software, as well as BBS, blog, and ringtone services.
Several days after Hong's arrest, Microsoft China told local media that, together with several other software companies, it had requested that the National Copyright Administration and the Chinese Ministry of Public Security investigate Tomatolei.com for software piracy.
It is said the high price of genuine Microsoft software creates a market for pirate software such as Tomatolei. Estimates put the number of PCs in China with illegal software installed as high as 70%.
Soon after the news came out other system forums that are similar to Tomatolei.com removed content about operating systems, for their own safety.
