DISQUS

The reason Tim is worried is that the RIAA has essentially written the copyright laws for the last 15 years or so. Note that if they had ripped the track from a copy protected CD, or a DVD, DVD-A, or SACD; than they would have been breaking the law!

While the Rio case upheld the fair-use exemption for space-shifting; numerous other cases have shown that the DMCA don't allow fair-use exceptions for the anti-circumvention clauses. So while fair-use may permit you to rip, you are not allowed to circumvent copy protection measures that prevent you from ripping! Welcome to the legal system written by the RIAA.

To be fair, they are not quite all powerful; as they have not yet succeeded in totally stamping out fair-use. Take a look at the latest dingbat laws being proposed before congress, and you can see that they are still hard at work though. They all begin the same way: because of copyright piracy threats from unprecedented new media; we need {insert clause that does not address piracy but that does take away fair-use rights}.

Earlier in the 20th century, congress resisted attempts to legally stifle piano rolls, movies, radio, TV, cable TV, and the VCR; all of which the copyright holders of the day said would cause irreparable harm. The difference now is that in 1992 (with the AHRA, and later the DMCA) congress sold out to special interests instead of the public good.