Jack, you're quite wrong about US copyright law.
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copying is legal and always has been under fair use laws.
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Fair use only makes copying legal in very specific instances. MP3 sharing is most definitately not one of them.
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giving away copies to family & friends (or anyone) has always been legal.
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Of course this is correct but only because copyright law doesn't cover what you can do with copies. Actually making the copies may well be illegal.
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the only legal issue concerns digital realms. analog copies are perfectly legal while perfect digital copies are not under dmca. that's the law today. what are mp3s? oggs? wmas? perfect digital copies? absolutely not.
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The DMCA says nothing about analog or perfect digital copies. You're probably thinking of the Audio Home Recording Act, which makes legal copying for private use done using specific types of equipment (and also places a tariff on this equipment in order to compensate rightholders). No law specifically makes compressed digital copies illegal, they're simply not covered by exemptions granted for by the AHRA.
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so, according to the law, something you hear a lot about from the riaa, the dmca does not call sharing mp3s illegal which is the only place in us copyright law that even addresses the issue of private, not for profit copies, and that's why the riaa wants to change the law.
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The DMCA does call sharing mp3s (or any other violation non-profit of copyright law) a crime if a value of the mp3s shared over a 6 month period exceeds $1000. Also, the DMCA is not the only part of copyright law to address non-profit copying, it is merely the only part of copyright law to make such copying a criminal offense. It has always been a civil violation to make copies, even if not for profit, unless specifically exempted under fair use or the AHRA.
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the law does not concern itself with compressed files which means it's legal, and the statute is fully clear that sharing copied analog songs is also legal.
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The law does does concern itself with compressed files! It doesn't mention them specifically but they are covered by the general sections of copyright law that address all copying and distribution.