Mobile phone users could be costing the record industry up to a $1 million a day according to a new report.

UK-based Internet monitoring company, Envisional, claims that those annoying mobile phone ringtones that are downloaded from Web sites and rip off popular tunes could constitute a breach of copyright.

How it reaches the magic number of $1 million a day is anyone's guess, though, since by its own admission reliable figures are hard to find.

"It's all a bit finger in the air," admitted a spokesman for Envisional, "it is a bit of a guestimate."

If the exact financial scale of the problem is a little tricky to assess, so too is the legal position.

Intellectual Property lawyer, Clare Griffiths, said that the whole issue is very complex - both for consumers and distributors since both can be in breach of the law.

"Copyright in the music will be infringed by taking a 'substantial part' of a musical work," she said, even if it just a small part of a song.

The legal waters are further muddied since the moral rights of the songwriter may also be infringed by the fact that a melody is turned into a ringtone which may be seen as damaging the integrity of the music.

Said Griffiths: "The application of the existing law to these new scenarios can also throw up interesting debates: for example, is the song being broadcast/performed when the phone rings, especially in a public place, further infringing the rights of the copyright owner?"

Confused? Well, so are we. ®

This just in from reader, Colin McDonald, who cannot believe his ears

"Bah, this is just a distraction from the desperate need for a campaign to punish pillocks who f&*k off for 2 hour lunches, leaving their mobile on their desk to shriek out the first 2 bars of Winne the F&*king Pooh at full volume over and over and over and over and over and.... Tone rage is ripe for being the next buzzword fad, right?"