Microsoft is setting up an emergency information hotline in a bid to stem the flood of pirated copies of Windows 95. Approximately 50 000 pirated copies of release 2 of the beta code are estimated to have been circulated on the continent for the last couple of months. Microsoft is asking customers, dealers and distributors to call the hotline number of they are approached with unauthorized copies of Windows 95. The copies found to date are not very professional, but dealers should be warned that more skilful copies of the full version may exist. Unauthorized copies should be easy to spot, according to a spokesperson for Microsoft: We have included certificates of authorization, holograms and ID numbers. If copies appear they will be from a highly organized source and probably originate from the Far East. Carmel Brown of the Federation Against Software Theft said, Windows 95 will be a target for those who copy illegally and put compilations of illegal software onto CD-ROMs.