Stewart Mason wrote:
> This story came up today on the radio show I wake up to every morning, 
> NPR's The Bryant Park Project.  Their correspondent pointed out that a 
> lot of the news articles about this lawsuit got an important detail 
> wrong: the brief doesn't charge the guy with taking his own CDs and 
> putting them into his own computer, but with putting them into a public 
> folder on his computer, which could be accessed by others.  So the issue 
> is still unauthorized distribution, just on a much smaller scale than 
> one of the P2P networks.
> 
> I'm not saying that the RIAA isn't batshit crazy, just that they're not 
> quite crazy enough to try to sue someone for putting tracks from his CDs 
> into a private, unshared folder on his computer.  In which case they'd 
> have to sue every single person who has ever bought an iPod.

Per this (& other sources), they *are* arguing ripping is a crime:
---- http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,319276,00.html ----

However, on page 15 of a supplemental brief responding to the judge's 
technical questions about the case, the RIAA's Phoenix lawyer, Ira M. 
Schwartz, states that the defendant is also liable simply for the act of 
creating "unauthorized copies" — by ripping songs from CDs.

Schwartz is a partner in DeConcini McDonald Yetwin & Lacy, the family 
firm of former Sen. Dennis DeConcini, R-Ariz.

"It is undisputed that Defendant possessed unauthorized copies of 
Plaintiffs' copyrighted sound recordings on his computer," the brief 
states. "Virtually all of the sound recordings on Exhibit B are in the 
'.mp3' format. ... Defendant admitted that he converted these sound 
recordings from their original format to the .mp3 format for his and his 
wife's use. ... Once Defendant converted Plaintiffs' recording into the 
compressed .mp3 format and they are in his shared folder, they are no 
longer the authorized copies distributed by Plaintiffs."

"I couldn't believe it when I read that," New York lawyer Ray Beckerman 
told the Washington Post. "The basic principle in the law is that you 
have to distribute actual physical copies to be guilty of violating 
copyright. But recently, the industry has been going around saying that 
even a personal copy on your computer is a violation."

In other words, according to Schwartz's logic, every single person who's 
ever "ripped" a CD for portable listening on an iPod or other MP3 player 
could be liable for astronomical damages.

Apple itself estimated earlier this year that only 4 percent of music on 
iPods worldwide had been purchased through iTunes, implying that most of 
the rest had been ripped from CDs.
-------------

And I've read that there is no legal precedent concerning ripping, so
it'll be interesting to find out if we're all outlaws. Or more likely
that the RIAA will have finally reached Waterloo.

   -Michael

NP: Bad Religion - Into the Unknown  ** bad religion does Audities :) **