US raises copyright conundrum. (Webbo).

It doesn't surprise me that boffins are trying to successfully find a way to stop CDs being made into files and therefore swapped free on the net, but experience tells me that every time a way is devised, another nerd finds the antidote almost as quickly.

I think the Natalie Imbruglia album was meant to be like that, but a mate of mine downloaded one from the net just two days after release so that system failed.

However, an article in The Observer by John Naughton recently alerted me to another problem regarding copying. It may only apply to the US at the moment, but it's worth a thought. When the last copyright law was passed in the US, lawyers conceded the right to make one copy for fair use -- that is, for the car and so forth -- in return for the levy on blank tapes, CDs and so on to be passed through Congress At the time, no one gave it a thought. It was hardly a big concession, but it may now be coming back to haunt us. For if you give the consumer the right to copy ...