In today's New York Times is a review[registration required] by David Pogue of the TEAC GF-350. It's a vinyl record player that lets you record from vinyl and tapes to CDs–essentially convert from a few generations old to last generation technology. Unlike computers and some other devices, the TEAC will only burn music to the special audio-only CDs which are supposed to prevent against serial copying, and for which the RIAA received a royalty under the Audio Home Recording Act–and I'd bet that the purchase of a TEAC device gives them a royalty as well.
From there, Pogue suggests that you rip the serial copy-protected CD you've created to your computer and convert the tracks so they'll play on your mp3 player. He used the example of recording his old college a cappella group record onto CD.
Policy wise, the article is interesting for a few reasons:
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It illustrates how the record industry is paid for devices and media that consumers use to digitally record audio–whether or not the industry is entitled to that royalty (I don't imagine Pogue's a capella group had a contract).
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Why didn't the TEAC device have an analog out? It may have worked nicely as a turn-table, CD player, and radio in a home entertainment system. Who knows, maybe it was a manufacturing / budget constraint (for a $400 turn-table, CD player combo?). Or did the manufacturer go out of its way to cripple its device to clamp-down on “piracy” for fear of liability?
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Did David Pogue violate the DMCA by telling his readers a way around the serial copy-protected CD by using iTunes?
There's also a nice video version of the article by the author which can be found here.