10-10-06: S7hortonPrecisely, and that's why I asked the question what law enforcement agency is going to devote resources to such a campaign? How does law enforcement prove that the CDs were sold after being ripped? They're going to devote taxpayer dollars to a sting operation to catch individual sellers of CDs? Doubtful. Thus, I believe the law has no teeth as it applies to this situation.
You are breaking the law when you rip the cd and THEN sell the disc. You can rip it and keep it. It's your music you paid for. But, it's when you rip it and then sell it to someone else that it is illegal.
Here's a question that pertains to the downloading issue. Let's assume someone owns no CDs and has a hard drive full of MP3s that were purchased and downloaded from iTunes. Some law enforcement agency discovers the MP3s on the person's hard drive and charges the individual with possessing illegal downloads. How does law enforcement prove the downloads were illegally obtained? How does the owner prove that the MP3s were legally purchased? Are the purchased MP3s encoded somehow to provide proof of purchase? Is the owner expected to keep receipts for the hundreds of songs he/she has downloaded?
Anyway, in Gretsch6120's situation, I believe the core of the issue regarding the decision to keep or sell his CDs is one of having the material available as back-up if his computer files or drives fail.