Stealing is easy, but when it comes to the latest issue of PC Plus, please don't. We look into the world of free downloading, the risks and what some consider the rewards, to find out the nature of online piracy in 2008. We also look at surviving the top 10 PC disasters waiting to befall your data, put Microsoft on trial as both an unfair player, and a mere victim of its own success, and go back to school with an interview with lecturer David Malan, the pioneer of Harvard's podcast lectures.

This month's technology focuses including the latest versions of Encyclopaedia Britannica and World Book Encyclopaedia, a full preview of Firefox 3, and every major Internet Security suite out there. In Make It, build open source circuitboards with Arduino, design sites for both iPhone and Windows Mobile, install Vista from a USB key, build Dashboard widgets, and make your interactive fiction games come alive in the concluding part of our guide to creating text adventures. Plus, find out all the latest on e-voting, international cyberwar games, and why technology companies lie.

PC Plus 268 is out now.