The RIAA has lodged documents in the ongoing case of the Record Industry vs Jeffrey Howell that argues that ripping music from legally purchased CD's is illegal.
Copying CDs
It's okay to copy music onto an analog cassette, but not for commercial purposes.
It's also okay to copy music onto special Audio CD-R's, mini-discs, and digital tapes (because royalties have been paid on them) X but, again, not for commercial purposes.
Beyond that, there's no legal "right" to copy the copyrighted music on a CD onto a CD-R. However, burning a copy of CD onto a CD-R, or transferring a copy onto your computer hard drive or your portable music player, won't usually raise concerns so long as:
The copy is made from an authorized original CD that you legitimately own
The copy is just for your personal use. It's not a personal use X in fact, it's illegal X to give away the copy or lend it to others for copying.
Hmm.. according to the following website linked from the RIAA's one: http://www.musicunited.org/2_thelaw.html
Could it be time to give a few senators and represantives a call and see about amending the Audio Home Recording Act ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Home_Recording_Act ) to put this issue to rest?