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Take my dad to court - the judge will laugh you out. There's still something called "fair use." Again - the courts are going to make some judgements here that will both please and displease RIAA. They want to go after people like my dad, they're going to get their ass handed to them on a plate. There are court cases that establish the precedent that what my father does is in fact not illegal - however, since he's using digital and not analog media now, RIAA somehow wants to argue that it is.

Scale of distribution is also taken into account in these cases, no matter what RIAA thinks. That's why they're only going after the people with hundreds of songs on their hard drive. My father is not breaking the law, at least when he makes one copy.

You guys sound good, but you're not really telling the whole story. There's a variety of factors the court considers in these cases, and making one copy (or even several copies) hasn't traditionally crossed the line. Issues of scale and profit are also considered. But RIAA doesn't like to talk about that.

If I have time tomorrow I'll look up and cite the relevent case law. Too late now . . .

Yes, please do look up the "relevant case law," because once again you're treading into territory that I don't think you're well acquainted with.

And don't get your feathers all ruffled about being told your father is doing something illegal -- you're the one who introduced the personal element into the argument. You can't do that and then expect everyone to sit around and pay some kind of deference just because he's your dear ol' dad.

He's making an unauthorized copy of a copyrighted work. That is illegal. It doesn't matter how harmless you think it is, or how cute that Pops sits around on the computer enjoying his favorite Bach.

Is any copyright holder going to bother with him? Likely not. It doesn't mean what he's doing is right or legal.