Microsoft's new 'Longhorn' operating system can be purchased for 92 pence - in Malaysia.

'Longhorn' is the code name for the next version of the Windows operating system, which follows on from Windows XP.

It is not officially due for release until 2005, and the launch is to be Microsoft's largest this decade, according to Bill Gates.

The pirated product is a copy of an early demo version that was originally circulated at a Microsoft conference in Los Angeles in October 2003.

The Longhorn CDs, which are selling alongside thousands of other pirated music and software discs in the southern Malaysian city of Johor Bahru, are evidence of the software industry's escalating piracy problem.

further info:
www.microsoft.com