For years now the Cartel have played it coy on the issue of whether they think it's legal for people to make personal copies of music you bought. Certainly the naive reading of the laws on personal backups and the like would encourage people to think they can make private backup copies of their own CDs. The alternative is that you ought to buy a copy of the CD for each car, computer room player, and boombox. And don't forget to buy another copy for every digital music player you want to download for, though most of the online stores explicitly let you use a tune on multiple players.

The Cartel has tried to have it both ways for years. You may remember that in MGM v Grokster, the RIAA agreed that it was OK to copy your own CDs, then promptly backtracked on that position in the Feb 2006 DMCA rule-making process.

This week we have Jennifer Pariser, the head of litigation for Sony BMG, testifying in Capitol Records, et al v. Jammie Thomas uttering this bit of... um, let's just agree to call it 'self-serving bullshit':

When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song.

Ars has been publishing stories for much of the last few months pointing out that the Cartel has gotten sloppy and overreaching in these suits. Mostly they get by because nobody can afford to fight them in court and risk a big loss. But if there''s a dirty underside here, maybe we'll see a single mother from Brainerd, Minnesota, expose it.