E-pirates Ahoy!

Software piracy levels are set to explode, costing software companies $1 million per site in lost business as broadband access and downloadable apps take off.
	Websites are capable of distributing millions of pounds worth of software unnoticed.  'Typically, when a pirate site goes up, you might get 1,000 downloads before it's shut down.  If there's between $500 and $1,000 worth of software on each of the downloads, you're looking at between $500,000 and $1 million,' says Mike Newton, campaign relations manager at BSA.
	The Business Software Alliance (BSA) says it's succeeded in closing down 95 percent of the illegal sites it's been alerted to, but that penalty could be tough to apply.  'Where we can bring them to justice, we certainly will.  Part of the problem with the Internet is it's difficult to pin-point where anybody is,' says Newton.
	'There's so much of it [on-line piracy] that we can't go after everybody as far as enforcement is concerned,' agrees Batur Oktay, senior corporate counsel at Adobe.