"The Internet has recently created a forum for good E-commerce," said Microsoft senior corporate counsel Nancy Anderson. "But another aspect is it is creating a new means by which to pirate software."

Microsoft, the world's largest software company, is currently taking legal actions against distributors believed to have been distributing hundreds of thousands of counterfeit licences over the Internet, Anderson said. She added she is not yet able to give details, but said they were some of the biggest such cases Microsoft has seen to date.

"Microsoft is definitely focused on this issue," she said.

Part of the concern about the Internet distributors is that they have the potential for a wider reach. Anderson said what she calls "old-fashioned" distributors are usually concentrated in urban areas, whereas an Internet distributorcould work from any locale and distribute nationally.

"There is an impression of a greater breadth of distribution," she said. "Whether they are actually distributing more, I don't know. But it certainly adds a dimension."

Microsoft uses tactics to investigate online distributors similar to those it uses with traditional storefront or mailorder ones-- especially leads from disgruntled customers and legal competitors.

A new element cited by Anderson is that Internet service providers are also asked to cooperate in taking down sites known to be involved in infringement.

Micosoft's push to enforce its copyright and trademark rights online is not hindering efforts to target the traditional illegal distributors, Anderson said.

Microsoft announced it has filed nine lawsuits resulting from its investigative sweep of New York area computer resellers suspected of illegally distributing counterfeit products and installing unlicensed software on computers sold to consumers.

Anderson said her impression wasthere was still vastly more distribution through the traditional means, and that the company was stepping up efforts to control all outlets for the pirated software.

"Over the past month we've ramped up out efforts, she said, adding that illegal software distribution on the Internet "is definitely one of the issues we are fighting."