Back in the “olden days”, IIRC it was considered perfectly legal to record off the radio on to a cassette tape. Assuming that’s true, would the same rules/law apply to recording off the radio or streaming audio to an MP3 format?
One of the main arguments against doing this is the fact that the quality is not degraded, if it is put into MP3 format. In other words, when dealing with a second hand (and second generation) recording, you could “tell” it was not original or authentic. MP3 is MP3 is MP3… so that the sacrifice in quality is not noticed, and therefore it is not legal.
I’m not talking about copying an MP3 file. I’m talking about taking the audio coming off of your soundcard and digitizing that into an MP3 file.
I have heard it stated that it is OK to record copywritten songs on to a cassette tape. It was stated that cassette tapes purchased from the store include a special surcharge that gets paid back to companies that represent the larger recording artists.
While I can’t vouch for the accuracy of these statements, even if they are true it still would not cover your example case, recording the radio to an MP3, since the MP3 does not include the surcharge.
Also, I believe there are two types of blank CD-Ws that are sold: 1) regular CD-Ws 2) “audio” CD-Ws that include the surcharge.