The website Monitorshop.co.uk has been caught selling pirated Microsoft software which though owner Mr. Paul Rowling claimed of having obtained from a legitimate chinese source. But the truth was revealed when a Monitorship's Customer used Microsoft's Product Identification Service.

Mr Rowling had obtained mainly copies of Windows XP and Microsoft Office 2003 from some chinese source and sold over £7,000 worth of pirated software. Monitorship has been said to be supportive in the investigations and provided with all the details of the source and the customers, which helped in recovering the pirated copies of the software and refunding the amounts to the effected customers.

Microsoft is glad that their Product Identification Number proved very effective and led to the closing down of illegal supply chain. And in any case, such moves against Piracy are always applauded, that too when online illegal sale of sofware have been on rise, just like online pharmacies, every week we receive numerous spams which try to entice customers with attractive offers like discounted prices for softwares, which can be downloaded online, etc. Hope to see more such cases in future.

Though as an individual we can also make a difference by reporting such online sales to the respective companies.