Clarifying the Myths of Copying and Sharing Music

A while back I wrote an article on the Myths of Copying and Sharing CD's and MP3's. With the RIAA 'Gestapo' (my apologies- is my bias showing?) cracking down on the villanous scourge of children and single-mother's enjoying music, I thought that there needed to be some plain-English guidance about what is, and is not, legally allowed. Recently, a user wrote and asked me "Do you have the actual law language that states that? We are having this problem in our family with our kids' friends giving our kids burned CD's." I did some digging and found some information. This blog post by William Patry, Senior Copyright Counsel, Google Inc. and formerly copyright counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives, is lengthy, but does provide some more detailed reference to the issue of copyright and its impact on copying music. I will say, having read the post, that it still seems like there is ambiguity, or that all sides don't necessarily agree on what is banned by copyright law and what is acceptable under the definition of 'fair use', but this post is very informative and provides references to the actual language of the relevant statutes.