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I have read the article linked to, Derek, and I'm 100% in agreement with what she's saying. I understand that the "fair use" clause of copyright law in the US is rather more liberal than that of the UK, but in the UK it's not legal to "rip" or otherwise copy a CD that you've bought. I'm obviously not saying that people don't do it, but it is not legal.
The "downloading songs that you already own" bit I interpret as referring to people who download from file sharing networks music from CDs which they've purchased, hence my analogy to the idea that it's OK to download illegal eBooks that you've bought a paperback copy of.
It's all too easy to make "big business" out to be the "bad guys", but the truth is that record company profits are falling through the floor primarily due to a generation of teenagers today who seem to feel that they have some "God-given right" to download free of charge any music track that they wish, rather than going out and buying records as we did when we were that age. All these companies are doing is trying to protect their own commercial existance, and I think personally that we should support them in that, rather than supporting the criminals.
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