"[3] Language in the court's decision suggests that noncommercial copying of recordings from a PC's hard disk to the Rio is a fair use under Sony v. Universal.

As the Senate Report explains, "[t]he purpose of [the Act] is to ensure the right of consumers to make analog or digital audio recordings of copyrighted music for their private, noncommercial use."

The Rio merely makes copies in order to render portable, or "space-shift", those files that already reside on a user's hard drive.

[4]This language, however, may be obiter dicta; the case was not about consumers' rights, but rather about whether Diamond Multimedia Systems was liable for not paying AHRA-mandated royalties after making and marketing a type of device that the plaintiffs asserted was covered by the AHRA.

DAT and specially-labeled "audio" CD-Rs fall under this, but general-purpose hard drives and portable media players do not.