We can't stop the pirates - says man who gave them the guns

The man who invented the MP3 says the music industry can't stop Internet users downloading the latest releases without paying.

Karlheinz Brandenburg, whose creation of the MP3 audio format allowed millions of people to swap music files across the net said attempts to shut down the illegal music trade are doomed to fail because there is no compelling incentive for people to obey the law.

"Consumers still see MP3s out there on the Internet where they can take everything for free. Stopping it is not as simple as saying, 'this is the law, you have to follow it'."

Research is under way to put audio "watermarks" on music files or scramble them with encryption.

But Mr Brandenburg said to lure people away from pirated MP3s the industry would have to offer incentives something that users could not get from free sites - perhaps improved quality or a wider selection of music.

It is thought that in the US alone some 60 million CDs were copied illegally last year, and 10 million copies were sold without permission.

Mr Brandenburg first came up with the MP3 idea a decade ago. and now plans are in the works for a new MP7 format offering improved sound quality and smaller files.