Syrian hacker lives by his own code

Abdul-Rahman Mahaini estimates that he has stolen millions of dollars' worth of software, hacking his way into the most complex programs in the world.

For a few bucks, the Syrian programmer will unlock the security codes for any program you send him via e-mail or online chat. But do not ask him to break into your former girlfriend's e-mail account or steal sales data from your competitor.

After all, Mahaini maintains, he is an ethical pirate, a devout Muslim who prays five times a day and breaks into software only because his country is under US sanctions and he has little choice.

Mahaini's life revolves around a software shop that he runs on Bahsa Street, Damascus' computer market. The business is a hive of young men asking one another for obscure software programs and the codes and serial numbers to unlock them. They orbit around Mahaini, 26, and his deputies - a kind of cyber-Robin Hood and his Merry Men who steal from the information haves and redistribute the loot to the have-nots. "If you try to deprive me," he said, "I will take it from you."

In 2007, piracy cost the US software industry $48 billion in potential revenue, up from $40 billion the year before, according to the Washington-based Business Software Alliance. The Arab world, where in some places more than 90 percent of software is pirated, is a haven for hackers.