RIAA Argues Songs Ripped to Your Computer for Personal Use Are "Unauthorized Copies" [Ripped]

This is so mind-blowingly ridiculous I'll leave all of the smarminess to you guys to wipe up in the comments. In the case Atlantic vs. Howell—the couple's being sued for sharing songs over KaZaA—the RIAA filed a supplemental brief. On page 15, they repeatedly call ripped MP3s "unauthorized copies," basically arguing that ripping songs from a CD to your computer for personal use is making an "unauthorized" copy. And the money quote so you don't have to pore over the whole document:

It is undisputed that Defendant possessed unauthorized copies of Plaintiffs' copyrighted sound recordings on his computer ... Virtually all of the sound recordings on Exhibit B are in the ".mp3" format. ... Defendant admitted that he converted these sound recordings from their original format to the .mp3 format for his and his wife's use.

I wanna give them the benefit of the doubt that they just poorly worded this part of the brief, but they tend to try to hang you with any slack you give them. [The Brief via Recording Industry vs. The People via Slashdot]

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