You've hit the nail on the head in saying that copyright law is not clear.

It also gets messier with digital copying media, as your music CD example may be logical, but I don't think it reflects the current law. For instance, Canadians pay a levy on each blank CD they purchase, which gives them the right to make copies, since they have already paid the fee to the CRIA. For instance, in 2005, the CRIA collected $35 million from the levy charged on all blank media (CDs, disks) in Canada. This gives Canadians the right to copy music, because they pay for it with the purchase of each blank CD/DVD, no matter how they intend to use it. of course, photographs and other media are different, and then the law gets murkier.

I write about copyright because I want to understand it better, especially since the digital age has changed the landscape. I think it will be very important for the advancement of education and learning to have reasonable copyright laws. Copyright itself is a legal construct (different in UK & Canada than in USA) that was developed in reaction to another technological innovation, the printing press.

We need to get this discussion out in the public and we also have to start educating our politicians.

The best resource I've found on the subject is Michael Geist's blog: