Dear Lyssa&JuliasMom

The question you ask is not an easy one to answer this is because copyright law usually varies from country to country, so what usually applies in the UK may not work in the US. Plus, as I am not a lawyer, or work in the legal profession, I can only pass on very general advice.

Sharing copyright material is illegal, i.e. if you buy a CD, record, tape etc. make a copy of it to pass on to a (non-paying) friend you have committed an offense. However, if you make a back-ups for yourself in order to protect your original purchases then that is legal.

I suppose, by extension, that back-ups can take any convenient format, such as MP3s. Therefore, if you back-up your CDs in MP3 format to organise them in a way that suits you then that should be legal also.

To address your point, downloading MP3s of the CDs you have purchased as a method of making back-ups would put you in a very grey legal area but, I guess, you could argue that you are protecting your original purchases.

However, because your RIAA seems to shoot first and ask questions later, I would suggest you phone or write to a legal help line, I am sure you have lots of them in the US, and put your question there.

As this is an international forum, anything that applies here, UK, Europe, Australia, etc. may not apply to your particular state or the US.

Sorry I could not be more helpful.




UK Bob