Sounds strange, I know but Germaine Greer just mentioned it on TV and I don't think I had ever thought about it until now and before I do, I thought it might be an interesting thought to put to 'the people'. The idea (a song) existed as a piece of data in the mind of the artist and was then produced and stored as form of digital information. This digital information is then interpreted as sound by another who then stores the information from that as data in their own brain.

Has something been copied here? Is the song stored in the brain of the artist a copy (of sorts) of the song stored in the brain of the listener? If a digital copy is protected by the laws governing copyright then why not mental copies? When I purchase a CD I pay for the digital copy of the music but if I hear it (either as a result of that copy or from some other source) and memorise that tune, haven't I made another sort of copy - one which i haven't purchased the rights to do?

Intellectually property is (if it really makes any sense), quite interesting. As I say, I haven't really given this that much thought yet but I'm interested in what others think.