The RIAA is NOT saying that ripping your CDs is illegal

Despite what some websites are reporting, the RIAA is NOT saying that ripping CDs into MP3s is illegal.

The story started on lawyer Ray Beckerman's Recording Industry vs. The People blog.  In a post yesterday Beckerman is claiming that the RIAA is saying that ripping CDs for personal use is illegal.  This simply isn't true.  Instead, what the RIAA is saying is that ripping CDs and then subsequently making those files available to others (by, for example, putting them into a folder that's shared on Kazaa) is an infringement.  The ripping of the files isn't the issue, the issue is the sharing of those ripped files with others. 

Here's the part of the brief that explains:

Once Defendant converted Plaintiffs’ recording into the compressed .mp3 format and they are in his shared folder, they are no longer the authorized copies distributed by Plaintiffs.

In other words, there's nothing new to see here ... move along.

I'm no fan of the RIAA's heavy-handed approach and insistence on having draconian powers, but there's no need to muddy the argument by spreading FUD.