I'm an optimist. I believe that whatever the record industry does, people will find a way to record and trade music. But I think it's worth noting that the industry is trying to stop us. For a long time the record industry has loathed the idea of mixed tapes. Of course, they're an important social phenomena and in college and high school I used many a mixed tape to woo lovely ladies. Come to think of it, that rarely worked, maybe the record industry is right.

No, they aren't. It rarely worked but it was always sweet. Mixed tapes are also a great way to say good bye to a friend taking a road trip, or to stay in touch with friends far away. "I know we haven't spoken in ages but here's what I'm listening to these days." My friend Gabe makes the best mixed tapes.

Why is this coming up now? Because MP3s and digital downloads and internet music distribution have brought the notion of musical copyrights back onto the table. I seriously doubt the record industry or the artists involved (and they're more important than the producers as far as I'm concerned) mind mixed tape making and music sharing. They probably also wouldn't mind such sharing done over the web. But they do rightly mind people making mixed tapes and selling them. Some of them mind people taping their concerts but I think the bands and producers are in the wrong there. Not everyone can see every concert, after all. Shouldn't the hard core fans have access to bootlegs? I think they should and I have the Tori Amos bootlegs to prove it. Without bootlegs I never would have liked Dave Matthews (they're great in concert but mediocre in the studio). Dave Matthews was smart, though. They actually used to let people plug tape recorders into the sound boards so that people would get good sounds.

This is a bit of a tangent but my point is clear: when you make art you own it, but only to a certain extent. You give up some ownership, after all, when you expect others to listen and I weigh the fans' appetites for more over the producer's right to profit. My feeling is this: no one should be able to stop concert bootlegs, but the person who makes the bootlegs should sell them for no more than the cost of the tape. If the bootlegger profits, it's criminal; if he doesn't, it's sharing.

Now, back to the Web and music and why everything might suck in the future. Because a bunch of Web bootleggers and pirates are selling these downloads and profiting by them, record producers are starting to encode security features in the files. It would be very easy for them to put in a code which didn't allow it to be copied at all, or which sent an e-mail to the record producers if it were misused. With DVDs and minidisks and digital recording equipment off-line it's also easy to ad anti-dubbing features and other security devices.

The record industry, who once suggested banning the sale of blank audio tapes in order to stop dubbing, is going to be empowered by new technology and the fans will suffer.

Like I said, I'm an optimist. We mixed tape makers and bootleg owners can beat them. We just need some smart hackers to start thinking now, and that's why I'm writing this column: call it a cry for help before the industry gets ahead of us.

Michael Maiello recently added the following to his music collection: The South Park soundtrack, the School House Rock Album, the Simpsons: Songs in the Key of Springfieldand the Bloodhound Gang's Hooray for Boobies.