If you thought Napster caused a stir over trading music and illegal CD-ROMs people made on their computers, wait until everybody gets a DVD burner!

The average price for an excellent DVD burner has dropped well below $400 and medium to low priced computers now include DVD burners as standard equipment.

The only thing holding back avalanche of DVD copying seems to be rather hefty cost of buying blank DVDs.

With an average price of $1.50-2.00 each, blank DVDs cost far more than blank CDs, which run around 20 cents each.

But, if you look back about 6 years, blank CDs used to cost a dollar apiece, so it won't take long for price of blank DVDs to drop.

When that price drop does come and every home with a computer can also duplicate full-length movies on DVD, watch for one of biggest upheavals in history of Hollywood.

It will make music industry's crackdown on illegal music sharing look as mild as a 5 minute "time out" in local pre-school class.

~ Yahoo! - Still King! ~

In a bid to capture even more of world's search engine traffic, search giant Yahoo! recently purchased web's largest pay-per-click search engine, Overture.com.

In process (and more importantly), since commissions from pay-per-click advertising with Overture represent a major source of revenue for most of other major search engines, Yahoo! definitely holds upper hand.

** Always Tell The Truth

Actually, this basic lesson from your Mom ranks best way to avoid all kinds of trouble! "The truth shall set you free" ranks just as appropriate in online world as in offline world.

In fact, in light of recent events, truth might actually keep you out of jail!

** Avoid Outrageous Claims

Don't make outrageous claims you can't substantiate.

A big difference exists between good copywriting (salesmanship in print) and making claims that no sane person, or at least average person, could ever achieve.

It's one thing to tell people you can show them "how to get thousands of hits to their website." It's quite another to say you will "show them how to get 10,000 hits to their website by tomorrow and make $15,000 this weekend."

** Turn Tables

Look at what your business promises and actually delivers from standpoint of a consumer.

Would you feel happy or sad once you did business with yourself?

Would you feel like you got your money's worth, or would you feel like you'd been held up at gunpoint in middle of night in mini-mart parking lot?

Your gut answer to that question will go a long way toward keeping you out of trouble with government.

Sort of funny how "Golden Rule" of "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" keeps cropping up in life as a way to consistently avoid trouble and heartache.

Jim Edwards and Bruce Safran are co-creators of "The Online Marketer's & Website Owner's Legal Information Clinic" -- the authoritative guide to protecting yourself and your website against needless harassment, lawsuits, and other legal problems.