public Object deepCopy( Object item ) throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException{
 Object copied = null;
 
 ByteArrayOutputStream baos = null;
 ObjectOutputStream oos = null;
 ObjectInputStream ois = null;
 try{
  baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
  oos = new ObjectOutputStream( baos );
  oos.writeObject( item );
  oos.flush();
  ois = new ObjectInputStream( new ByteArrayInputStream( baos.toByteArray() ) );
  copied = ( Object ) ois.readObject();
 }finally{
  try{
   if( oos != null ){ oos.close(); }
   if( ois != null ){ ois.close(); }
  }catch( Exception ex ){
   ex.printStackTrace();
  }
 }
 
 return copied;  
}