In Atlantic v. Howell, an anti-piracy lawsuit in Arizona, the RIAA is making the case that, while it’s legal to rip CDs for personal use, it’s illegal if you store ripped tracks in a folder that is shared:

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. Moreover, Defendant had no authorization to distribute Plaintiffs’ copyrighted recordings from his KaZaA shared folder.

Each of the 11 sound recordings on Exhibit A to Plaintiffs’ Complaint were stored in the .mp3 format in the shared folder on Defendant’s computer hard drive, and each of these eleven files were actually disseminated from Defendant’s computer.

A lot of bloggers are construing this case to hype the idea that you’ll get sued just for ripping CDs, which suggests that they haven’t read the case documents.

You’re still safe to exercise your fair use rights, rip your CDs and load up your iPod. Or you can skip the RIAA drama and listen to legal free music and support the musicians that are reinventing the music business.

via RIAA Against The People