A Connecticut man known on the internet as ''illwill'' was sentenced to two years in prison Friday for stealing the source code to Microsoft's Windows operating software, among the company's most prized products.

The Associated Press reports in The New York Times (27 January) that William Genovese Jr., 29, was sentenced by US District Judge William H. Pauley, who called Genovese ''a predator who has morphed through various phases of criminal activity in the last few years.''

Genovese pleaded guilty in August to charges related to the sale and attempted sale of the source code for Microsoft's Windows 2000 and Windows NT 4.0. The code had previously been obtained by other people and unlawfully distributed over the internet, prosecutors said.

The AP report says that source code is the blueprint in which software developers write computer programs. With a software program's source code, someone can replicate the program. Industry experts expressed concern that hackers reviewing the Microsoft software code could discover new ways to attack computers running some versions of Windows.

Prosecutors said in an indictment in February 2004 that Genovese posted a message on his Web site offering the code for sale on the same day that Microsoft learned significant portions of its source code were stolen.

According to AP., Genovese was arrested when an investigator for an online security company hired by Microsoft and an undercover FBI agent downloaded the stolen source code from his Web site after sending him electronic payments for it.

Microsoft had previously shared parts of its source code with some companies, US agencies, foreign governments and universities under tight restrictions that prevented them from making it publicly available.

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