I still have my lps. Somewhere I have a box of 45s and in there I know I have a few marked "promotional - not for resale." I expect half the people who ever worked for college radio do, too. My greatest regret in life is actualy that I did not lift the Toto promotional lp that contained band members answering scripted questions sent to college stations allowing squeeky voiced frosh djs to seem like they were actually interviewing the great band in studio. Apparently now the, shall we say, non-market acquisition of such items are less controversial than actually paying for them:

"Back in 1992 or 1993, Sotheby's had on the front of their rare record catalogue a record by the Beatles, Love Me Do," he says. "This was a seven-inch single marked 'promotional copy, not for resale' and it went for £15,000. "Now I suggested to the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society that they might like to go back to Sotheby's and ask for the money back, because this is still subject to the same rules that modern promotional items are.

"We have sold recently, on eBay, many promotional records for tens of thousands of pounds in total. That doesn't seem to be a problem because they are 30 or 40 years old. "Suddenly, if you are trying to sell something which is a promotional item made in the last few years, that seems to incur their wrath.

The Mechanical Copyright Protection Society! Why didn't I think of that. Maybe I can corner the market in something like that - The Society For The Preservation of Suit Venting or something. But it turns out they've been around since 1924 and is the UK body that functions like Canada's SOCAN or rather CMRRA ensuring the cash that is earned by artists through the sale of their art gets in to the hands of those artists.

So, I don't mind this effort to control the work of art owners anymore than I mind you locking your house or keeping your PIN to yourself. Yet, I will not confess the sins of the box of 45s either. The law of art can't trump all the deeds of youth.