The first Christmas present that I remember getting, and absolutely loving, was a plastic Fisher Price record player. My parents gave me a couple of records to listen to, and in retrospect, I'd say they suck ass. Then again, I was maybe 3, what did I know about good music? I liked those records then As I got older, I started listening to my mom's old 45 records. Her collection had some of the best songs from the 50's and 60's, and my brother and I listened to oldies while we did pretty much anything else. Here's where home taping comes into play. It's not like there are walkmans that play records, nor can you install a record player in your car stereo. So, when I was only about 6, I became a music pirate, the most vile of criminals as the RIAA would have you believe. We didn't have a high-tech home stereo system. No, we took a portable Panasonic tape player with a built-in mic, held it near the speaker of our Fisher Price record player, and made a mix tape of oldies that way. This was not easy, nor did we get high-quality recordings. We frequently had to re-record songs if the record skipped, the cat meowed loudly, someone burped, or whatever. We didn't care, though. It was a labor of love. Despite our unorthodox process, really, I think what we were doing was legal. No, we didn't own the records we were copying, but someone in our house did. All we were doing was transferring the music to a more convenient medium. Years later, now that I'm in my 20's, I still have access to those old 45's. Would it be a crime to download all of those songs in order to have them in the most convenient format for me? I don't think so. In fact, the only time it is legal to make a copy of copyrighted material is if you are using it for backup purposes and aren't selling it for profit. I'd go on, but I think it'd be a better idea to make another writeup for gray areas in the copyright laws rather than keep typing here. | 
