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Originally Posted by da_jane
But Fair Use in terms of copying applies to texts not owned by yourself. I think this more correctly falls under time shifting which is entirely appropriate (ie., recording of TV shows to be watched at a later date).
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It applies to _copyrights_ not owned by yourself. Even personal copying falls under copyright law - one of the "rights reserved" to the copyright holder is the exclusive right of reproduction. Time shifting is an example of something that *is* Fair Use (still covered by copyright law, but an exemption to the absolute right of reproduction of the copyright holder). But "format shifting" hasn't been ruled on yet (at least as far as CD->MP3 goes, again, books have been around longer, so I may be wrong). It probably would be found to be legal if it were challenged. But it isn't an open-and-shut issue, sadly.
Actually, thinking about it, the law probably hasn't ruled on the issue, even for books. Prior to 1997, copyright infringement had to be for commercial gain, clearly excluding personal copying. However, the No Electronic Theft act criminalized not-for-profit infringement. There are some exemptions in there, but at the very least you're still open to a civil suit.
That's legally speaking. But practically speaking, as someone already said, you're not going to get caught, and even if you went around with a big sign telling everyone about it (or posted to an internet messageboard), you wouldn't be sued or prosecuted. However, I do think it's important that more people realize how broken our current copyright system is, so I'm going to keep harping on it ;-)