I agree that the owners of the intellectual property need to be compensated, and that when you buy a CD you don't "own" the music in the CD, but rather the right to listen to it as you please. However, I bet that most of us in this forum have been ripped off by the record companies because we end up paying up to three or four times for the right to the same thing, just because of change in medium.

Let me explain, I have a factory recorded tape collection of about 100 tapes, a collection of about 200 vinyl albums, and about 250 CDs. All three of the above collections overlapp. So, there's roughly 80 creative works (albums) that I have had to purchase three separate times to obtain a single right. Similarly about 50 of them that I've had to purchase twice. I still have tons of tapes and vinyl albums that I would like on CD and eventually will re-purchase. If actual manufacture of a CD is worth less than a buck, then I should be able to turn in my vinyl plus a buck and get a CD in return. Otherwise, I'm being ripped off! So, a little trading of ripped music for non-comercial purposes is harmless, and definitely does not make me feel guilty. I'm still at a loss since only about 10% of the music I have in mp3 format comes from stuff I did not purchase. The other 90% I have purchase an average of 2.3 times!.