If I go to the library and check out a CD; is that stealing?
No. That's "fair use" borrowing. (Have you ever heard of the concept of "fair use"?)
If I put the music from the aforementioned borrowed CD onto my MP3 player; is that stealing?
Yes. You are now copying - i.e. duplicating. That's where the infringement comes into play.
If I'm at work listening to my MP3 and a buddy wants to listen too, and so I load the music onto his MP3; is that stealing?
Yes. You are now copying - duplicating - and you are now making your buddy an accessory to the infringement.
My buddy likes the music so much, he decides to burn it onto a CD so that he can listen to it in his car. Is that stealing?
Yes, since he's duplicating already infringed work.
NOW, if your buddy had bought that CD and made one copy for himself on another medium, that is considered acceptable use (typically "fair use" - yet another copyright LAW concept).
Yes, and they have and successfully done so. Napster, Kazaa, etc. How many times have you run into websites that previously linked clips (of works they don't control since they're not the copyright holders on the music) but no longer have them?
The music industry has come up with POWERFUL webcrawler systems that allow it to ID these works and then get the site webmasters to DE-link the works. That's the bottom line.
I am rapidly running out of time to contribute to this thread, so I can be a gainful self-employed person here. I will try to respond late tonight to any responses, comments or questions you may have.
It's copyright violation, so yes, in effect, it's stealing from the person who wrote the song, the publisher who published it, and the record label that distributed it. By the way, you know what it's called when you take a song off a CD and make an mp3 right? It's called ripping. Nuff said.
I'll answer: none of it is stealing.
However, after the first one you are probably guilty of copyright infringement, as they likely go beyond fair use.
How is a person supposed to know what is legal and what is not legal? How do I know if the person who owns the copyright to the files hasn't released them to the public?
This is a BIG problem these days. Some people keep trying to get a law introduced that would require copyrighted material to be re-registered or lose its protection. It'll never fly though, as the copyright cartel wants (and is getting) easy perpetual copyright.