In the UK, as HarryT often reminds us, it's not legal to move content from one format to another - so things like ripping a CD to MP3 break copyright law.
However, a new proposal plans on enshrining the right to format shift. This would be much more clear than the current state of the law in the US, where format shifting has not been explicitly protected, nor ruled to be either legal or illegal.
Here's the story from Ars:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...l-at-last.html