Microsoft's thin blue line

When Microsoft launched Windows XP, it seemed as if half the world already had a copy.

The new operating system was so easily available on the Internet that we even found a 16-year-old hacker in Scotland who had set up a website offering copies of it for free.

It was in stark contrast to the impression given by Microsoft's Global Takedown Team. We visited the sheriffs of the Internet's Wild West after the XP launch - and they seemed to think they were keeping the bandits at bay.

At a secure and secret location in Britain, they identify and remove websites that sell and provide illegal copies of Microsoft software. Boasting of their success, they said: 'We have done big sweeps where we have closed down hundreds of sites.'

Yet a Google search using the word 'Warez' - Internet slang for cracked software - and Windows XP showed a staggering 17,200 results. It was not conclusive, but indicated a high level of trading.

Computer security experts are highly sceptical of the Takedown Team's success, and believe Microsoft will never stamp out piracy until it spends more money protecting its software.

Until then, they say, software companies will simply have to put up with bright young computer users, and hardcore pirates, ripping off their products either for fun or profit. The teenage hacker we found, like many others, had put the illegal versions - known as 'cracks' - of XP on to a university website without thinking of the consequences. When told he faced the wrath of the mighty US software giant, his plaintive cry was: 'It wasn't just me ... I didn't mean to ...'

As soon as his university was told of the files' existence it closed down the website.

Punishment in the courts for dealing in 'cracks' ranges from hefty fines to prison sentences. John Safa, director of computer security firm BitArts, said teenagers around the world who carried out this kind of activity without realising the consequences risked ruining their lives. He claimed one way for software companies to clamp down was to develop more sophisticated licence checks for software.

Another security expert likened 'cracking' to drugs - users start out light by downloading illegal software, then start visiting Internet newsgroups where they learn the art of 'cracking'. The expert said some newsgroups are believed to be sponsored by Internet porn barons, who seduce new clients with cybersex as they learn to 'crack' software. Once they have started down this path, hackers face a very gloomy future.