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As part of an ongoing Genuine Software Initiative (GSI), the WGA doesn't rely on the user submitting their copy of the operating system for validation against counterfeiting, but rather the user will automatically be notified 'directly to their desktop' that they've wound up with a ringer.

This hopefully will motivate the owner to submit it to Microsoft in exchange for a genuine copy along with purchase information that might lead Microsoft to the original vendor.

The WGA was already being trialled in Norway and Sweden since November 2005 and more than 150 million PCs are signed up. It will now be expanded to include the United Kingdom, the US, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand.

Auction sites such as eBay are a prime example of a source of counterfeit software. In the UK more than 21,000 suspected illegal sales were halted on eBay in the second half of last year. Microsoft has dedicated teams monitoring transactions of its products with an eye for counterfeiting.

It's an expensive endeavour, but given Windows' pre-eminence on the desktop and the fact that the Business Software Alliance has estimated that 35 per cent of all PC software used worldwide is counterfeit or otherwise

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illegal, Microsoft could literally clean up here. And IDC reckons that lowering the piracy rate by a tenth would put some $400bn back into the economy and a good chunk into Microsoft's coffers too.

Of course Microsoft's doesn't spin this as its own financial gain, but as a benefit for customers. And it has some worthwhile points - a cheap CD with a cracked version of Windows from eBay for example could also include malicious code such as viruses that you didn't order. The other beneficiary is its own channel says Microsoft, who are otherwise on an uneven playing field competing with pirates able to offer Windows at lower prices.

And Microsoft is after the vendor rather than the victim, and even then with a view to getting them to mend their ways rather than head straight for the courtroom. But that's not to say that the process might not end up there eventually.

David Finn, a director of Legal and Corporate Affairs for Microsoft, said: 'Today's licensing enforcement is a sophisticated, targeted process ... Microsoft has a dedicated team that works throughout the world to carefully identify leads, test software and educate consumers and the channel on the importance of genuine software. While we look at legal action as a last resort, Microsoft will protect honest resellers and consumers by challenging those who persist in dealing with non-genuine or illegal software.'

'The company works with local laws and law enforcement to take appropriate action when a channel partner is found to be selling or installing counterfeit and pirated software, and duping our end customers, who believe they are paying for genuine products,' he added.

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