As writers, we very much depend on copyright ' it's what we sell (a license) to those who publish out stuff. That's why first serial rights and all the other rights are so important, and why we can get more (or less) money for our writings.

However, you might have noticed just how much furore there's been over the rights (Copyright!) to pieces of music, and how the big music companies are hollering about piracy in downloads and other such. We, as writers, have a lot at stake in these piracy games ' it's our earning power that could be eroded.

That's one of the problems with the Web and the Internet: it becomes so easy to make copies. It doesn't matter whether it is music or story or verse. Or even picture. It can all be copied, and every copy is effectively indistinguishable from the original.

Software ' have any of us NOT used a small utility type program (or even a major application) to get things done, without paying for it, or even acknowledging that we made use of someone else's intellectual property? So what that the program only costs a few dollars? Or we only needed it for a very short period, so we downloaded a trial copy that we deleted from our computers. We are all guilty of some level of piracy.

That's the thing, though.

When it is so easy to make a copy, so totally indistinguishable from the original, what good is copyright? We breach it, without even thinking that someone else might own the copyright. How many of us send an e-mail that was sent to us, as part of one of those chain-letter type things ('Send this on to people you love/honour/respect, and you'll have something glorious happen to you'�, or the 'little janey is dieing, and would like to receive 1,000,000 emails to get into the book of records'�). They're all, technically, breaches of copyright, even though we assume we have permission to do so.

Or all those stories about plagiarism. You know, the well-known author (or one that's cracked the market) who gets accused of taking ideas from someone else's work. There's a topic in the bulletin pointing to a fan-fiction. The piece referred to could be considered a breach of copyright, even though it's done to honour the author of the original character. It's plagiarism and breach of copyright, even if it's not done for wealth and fame.

So, what's the future of our beloved copyright?

We're entering into an era where Star Trek technology is feasible, in particular, the replicator, which can create objects that are identical to originals. The fact that you are able to reproduce this article on your computer, with all my spelling and grammar errors, is replication. Sure, you can get it from only 'My Ink'�, but you can make copies of it (not that I can imagine why you would want to) and even on-sell it to others.

How are we writers going to survive in a world where copyright is meaningless?

Your thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated'�.

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