Bankok pirates--Windows ME for $3

Dozens of Thai teenagers gather around a table at one stall, flipping through a book of photocopied covers of compact discs. A female customer in her mid-30s points to a CD featuring around 100 songs from 10 albums by Thai and foreign pop icons. A few minutes later the shopkeeper rushes back with the compact disc she requested sealed in a plastic bag. The price -- 100 baht ($2.32), a fifth of what customers would pay for a legal hit CD album. A home edition of Widows XP software is sold in a legitimate shop on the second floor of Pantip at 9,000 ($208) baht. A few yards away, the copied program is offered at 130 baht ($3.00).

The Business Software Alliance estimates that 79 percent of software used in Thailand last year was illegal, compared with 81 percent in 2000. The deputy commerce minister told Reuters the ministry would try its best to keep the infringement rate below 70 percent this year. --Reuters