In December of last year, I discussed that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) had changed their position on the legality of making MP3s from your own CDs. While they had at one time said it was okay, in recent court cases that have been taking the tact that it is technically illegal to do so.

This is where it gets funny. As of this moment, and keeping in mind that you can not rip music from your own CDs, there is no legal way to have the music of the Beatles on your MP3 player. Yes, a deal is now in place for their music to be sold on iTunes, but it has not taken effect yet.

So, what should the RIAA do if someone famous, say, oh, I don’t know, the President of the United States, admitted to having Beatles songs on his iPod?

Credit goes to 9to5Mac for finding this. Now, I’m actually not saying the RIAA should go after him, but I do think this demonstrates just how silly this whole idea is. I certainly don’t think President Bush went on a torrent site and downloaded the songs, and probably some intern ripped the music from the President’s CD collection for him, but that just shows people don’t think twice about such an action, and in my thinking, they shouldn’t have to.

However, if the RIAA is going to make such a stink about this act, and even try to use it in court hearings, then I want to know they went after this evil-doer that has admitted publicly to having music on his iPod that could have only gotten there by illegal means. Come on RIAA… you seem to have big brass ones when it comes to picking on the common folk, you got what it takes for this case?