The wheel turns...

I'm old enough to remember when audio cassette recorders made their first appearance, and the music industry were up in arms because people could now borrow the latest hit record from a mate and make a copy of it for their own use (OK, reel to reel tape recorders had been around for some years, but they weren't commonplace).  Shock horror!!  Then it happened again with the advent of video recorders - you could now record a film off the telly and watch it again and again. The film industry couldn't see beyond the money they would be losing.  Of course in time both the music and film people saw that these innovations were in fact business opportunities and that there was the potential for them to make far more than they might lose by any so-called "piracy".  And now it's all happening again with the internet and its ability to "stream" content to users, and you'd think that people would have learned from the past - but no, apparently.  The vested interests are trying to get legislation passed in the US which would allow them to dictate just who is allowed to see what on the net - and its affects would be felt well beyond the States.  Plenty of opposition but also plenty of money behind those seeking such a law.  Let's hope common sense prevails.