The Business Software Alliance (BSA), a software industry anti-piracy organization, says that the Internet is a good way to track down offenders.

The alliance reported this morning that during the first three months of the year it received an astonishing 3,728 leads on potential pirates - significantly more than those generated by its toll-free telephone numbers. The advantage of using the Web as an anonymous (if required) lead generator for its anti-piracy operation teams is that tip-offs can be generated at very low cost (for the sender) from anywhere there is Internet access. As a result of its 3,728 Internet leads, the alliance says it sent 1,643 "take down notices" for those offering or selling illegal software on the Internet, and of those, 1,468 infringing sites were taken down. Mike Newton, the BSA's UK campaign relations manager, said that infringers believe they can get away by offering software without a licence through the Internet. Newton said that the exponential growth of the Internet and the ever-increasing number of online users has created serious potential economic problems. For example, he said, the number of Internet sites has increased at an annual rate of 61 percent over the last five years and is estimated to be over 72 million today. On top of this, industry experts anticipate that by 2005, around 66 percent of software will be distributed over the Net, compared to just 12 percent today. The BSA says that software theft on the Internet is vastly simpler and detection more difficult than in traditional settings.