Other than SPAM the other ongoing battle on the internet is how to deal with copyrighted material. Be it music, videos, TV shows, DVD's or any other digital content that you can watch or listen to, the struggle continues. Adding a layer of complexity to digital content copying is that different countries have different laws and therefore deal differently with whether it’s illegal or legal to do such things as create a website that provides links to downloads at other websites and internet locations of the digital content. With the globalisation of the internet and the ability to have servers located in most countries of the world it is a challenge to police.

Interestingly the Australian Federal Court released a judgement on December 18th 2006 that "Stephen Cooper, the operator of www.mp3s4free.net, as well as the internet service provider that hosted the website, were guilty of authorising copyright infringement because they provided a search engine through which a user could illegally download MP3 files."

If Stephen Cooper had been a Russian or a Norwegian or from a selection of many other Scandinavian and European countries, then he would have been able to continue his website and service unabated. The major impact that the Australian Federal Court's decision has had is that it is now clearly illegal to link to copyright protected material.

Our advice to readers is to be careful when downloading music, be careful what maps and pictures you use on your website and in be aware of digital copyright as an issue in general as the laws and people willing to enforce them are on the increase.