In Sony BMG's latest triumph in public relations, its chieflawyer has argued that copying a song you already own (such as onto your own PCfrom a legally purchased CD) is stealing.

Of course, the strict legal position in the UK is just that, but reaching back to the days of recording music from the radio onto cassette tape, nobody's ever made any fuss so long as it was for your own use.

Not surprisingly, Sony BMG head of litigation Jennifer Pariser's comments in the US have sparkedplenty of reaction. In her ideal world you would pay separately for each deviceyou listen to a song on - a Sony device, I'm sure it's safe to presume.

There's maybe some grey area here as to whether Pariser wasgiving Sony's official position, or her own. But I wouldn't be surprised if itwas both.

And if a senior representative of such a high-profilecompany is willing to take such an antagonistic stance, on recordno less, then perhaps I should do the same.

Simply put, if Sony tries to put such a system intopractice, I will never ever buy anything associated with the company everagain.

Of course, this assumes that we'll actually get to find outwhat Sony is up to. That would at least show that it learned something from thePR fiasco caused by including hidden rootkit software on its CDs in 2005.

Pariser speculates that Sony BMG has halved in value since 2000. Sure, piracy has had an effect, and believe it or not Ilargely support measures to crack down on illegal copying and downloading of music.

Foran up-and-coming band putting all their time, money and energy into succeedingin a cut-throat industry, music piracy from so-called 'fans' actually does a lot of harm.

But saying it's 'stealing' to seek to enjoy music you boughtand paid for on another device (that you also bought and paid for) is, in myopinion, totally insulting.

Because if we accept this, then we have to ask - what comesafter that?

A limit to how many times I'm legally allowed to listen to aCD? Or better still, a pay-per-listen scheme on CDs - where true fans pay more for wanting to listen to their favourite tracks regularly? How about a law prohibiting anyone but you hearing the music? After all, you're the only one who paid for it, not so?

No thanks, Sony. Me and my legally purchased music collection can live without suchpolice state values.