If you have a copy of a song on a particular format, say an LP or tape (remember them??) you have purchased the right to play that song. Now obviously I can't stick an LP into my laptop to play it, but I can convert that track to an electronic format to play it. This is nothing different to ripping a cd to my laptop and then placing that song onto my iPod.

In essence then the act of downloading is not necessarily illegal. The problem comes from 2 main areas:

1. What EXACTLY does your local law state?
2. Do you have the funds to prove to the music industry that you were not screwing them over??

My example, if accepted on legal grounds, gets very fun - what if you had bought the LP in 1970 and the LP was stolen, what if you buy a game and the disk is damaged? I'm sure you can think of other examples.

How often do you take an original CD and rip it onto a writable disk to play in your car. I do it all the time so that if the disk is accidently damaged, I still have the original in perfect condition. I have, strictly speaking, broken copyright law in that I have copied the original song and now have two copies. Again, nothing different to the 1980's when we copied LP's onto tape to play music in our cars.

There is a legal principle in many countries in that the plaintiff (music industry) must prove intent - in other words you willingly and deliberately wanted to cause harm and commit a legal offence.

Back to point 2 - how much cash do you have to stop the music industry screwing you if you are unfairly accused of illegal downloads??????