Re:License to read? How copyright law truly operat (Score 1)

Yes, copying a CD into MP3 format is indeed "unauthorized". However that does not make it copyright infringement. The RIAA is hoping that the court won't like the guy and the court will be running down the list ruling against the guy and the RIAA is hoping that the court won't pay too close attention to this particular point and will just rule in the RIAA's favor on that one too. "The guy did bad stuff and this sounds bad too". And that would give the RIAA a case and a ruling to point to as precedent denying format conversion as Fair Use.

Yes, and that is the danger, because it's just crazy enough to work.