I own over 3.000 vinyl albums and about the same amount of cd's. All of the vinyl and most of the cd's are still in the states because it would cost a small fortune to ship them over to England. If I download songs or albums that I've already bought once, but because of logistics, don't have access to the originals, am I a thief? If so, like Thom Yorke says..."Hail To The Thief"!
Mankie, if you would have downloaded a couple of those Interpol songs, you wouldn't have wasted $15 on the full length. Maybe that's what the record companies are afraid of! Out of curiosity, are your Rain Band, Elbow and I Am Kloot cd's store bought originals or copies? If they're copies, are they copies of downloaded songs? Is that illegal too?
Are promotional cd's illegal to buy? Can I go to jail or fined for buying them too? Maybe the RIAA should concentrate on the technology that enables songs to be ripped into mp3 files. They're about to cut off their nose to spite their face.