In a process similar to that used in ballistics Microsoft’s senior forensics manager, Donal Keating, uses the abrasions and grooves on a counterfeit software disk to match it to other fakes. He'll then try to trace the counterfeit disc to the factory and the crime syndicate that produced it.

Microsoft employs 75 investigators, lawyers, and analysts—many with experience in narcotics and Mafia cases—in nine crime labs around the world to combat counterfeiting.

They use custom-built microscopes to take 72 high-resolution images of each counterfeit software disc in order to identify its digital fingerprint. Maps help them track the movement of these disks recording where they were bought and seized.

Microsoft's associate general counsel for antipiracy, set up the unit in 2000, shortly after the company lost what it expected to be a straightforward counterfeiting case in England. The judge said Microsoft hadn't provided enough evidence to prove that software discs were fake.

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek