Cgarrett,
I think the only problem with recording stuff from the net or any other source is resale of that recorded material. If you buy, rent or borrow a tape or cd from someone and record it for your own use, I don't think that is illegal. Even if it is illegal to copy for your own use, no one really cares anyway. As long as you are not cutting into the record company's bottom lines, they don't care.

The uproar about copying from the net is that with todays technology, you can actually download a cd and burn a gadzillion copies on your home equipment and sell them for tons less than the record stores.

I believe it was not an issue in the "old days" of tape decks because it would have been so impractical to make a sufficient number of copies (unless you owned a recording studio) to cut into regular album sales that nobody even cared about it.

Just my .02. Now I'm going to wake the rest of the gang up and do some wrapping paper ripping:d:d:d

Merry Christmas morning everybody:)

T-bird: When tape recorders came out that was going to be the end of the record industry, then VCR's were going to be the end of the movie industry. This however is a little different. To record a Tape you had to go out to the store and buy the tape, not only is this a MAJOR inconvenience but a decent quality tape was almost as much if not more then the original record would cost, SO you would just buy the original. To make copies for YOURSELF and YOURSELF ONLY has held up in court as legel. To take a tape, cd or what ever and make a copy for your friends IS illegal. When you do that the artist does not get the royalties that they deserve. Anyhow what makes MP3's so attractive is that you do not have to get in your car to go out and buy anything, you just go sit in your seat and go on line and download. No one gets royalties, and sales of CD's go WAY down. Then why do they want to pay artists and so on and so forth.

Jon

gdfather: thanks for the link - looks like the ticket.

As far as illegal pirating of music: I agree with a comment I heard earlier - MP3's for the most part suck for quality. While they sound just dandy from a Walkman point of view, nobody would or should be content playing them through a nice system.

I think freebie MP3s fill the same void that cassette-taped FM music used to fill. Convenience alone. If you want the quality, buy the CD.

CD prices are dropping BECAUSE of the MP3 revolution. It would have been nice for them to have dropped a LONG time before that. Has anybody noticed that the greedy-a$$ed record labels continue to charge more $$ for CD's versus cassettes??? What's with that? We all know that CD's are INFINTELY cheaper to produce than a TAPE. A tape has to be RECORDED, while a CD is BANG BANG BANG as fast as they can press them.

The music industry chieftains have been far too greedy with their pricing. This I feel has driven the scramble for a shareable format. Thus MP3s.

I own several hundred purchased music CDs. I don't personally mess with MP3s cause the quality varies so dramatically. BUT my KIDS do - MP3 is the format of choice for kids.

My brother in law is a well-known musician and songwriter - ha has 5 CMAs and 13 ACM awards. He feels that the industry has asked for something like the MP3 situation. HE says that sure, it affects the royalty structure, but who couldn't see it coming...

I have a good friend who has one #1 country song this year, and a second climbing fast to the top of the charts. Also has 4 (or 5) CMAs. He is a MP3 user and CD burner as bad as any out there.

He says that it is the ultimate way of try-before-you-buy. He can get any Cd for free from the record labels, but he uses MP3's and complimentary CDs as a "trial" to see if he likes it. If he likes it, he ALWAYS goes and buys the CD to help the artist. He says he has bought TONS of CDs he would have never considered buying because he was able to try them out before dropping $10 on it.

I see both sides clearly, but I currently do not feel the tiniest bit guilty about my kids Kaaza-ing a zillion MP3's and burning them to CDs...