A website offering an unaltered copy of the Windows Vista beta via BitTorrent has been taken down by Microsoft. 

Vistatorrent.com was set up by Chris Pirillo and Jake Ludington to ease the load on Microsoft's servers and reduce the time taken to download the test software. 

The number of people attempting to download the Vista beta has been so great that if Microsoft increased the bandwidth it could affect other services like World Cup viewing. 

Microsoft sent a cease-and-desist notice to Vistatorrent.com on Wednesday, claiming that it was "offering unlicensed copies of, or is engaged in other unauthorised activities relating to, copyrighted works published by Microsoft".

The owners complied by removing the torrent.