I guess you could extend my title - just don't let your lawyer speak in public, period. Here's Sony BMG's anti-piracy lawyer, calling many of Sony's customers thieves (via Ars Technica):

Pariser has a very broad definition of "stealing." When questioned by Richard Gabriel, lead counsel for the record labels, Pariser suggested that what millions of music fans do is actually theft. The dirty deed? Ripping your own CDs or downloading songs you already own.

Gabriel asked if it was wrong for consumers to make copies of music which they have purchased, even just one copy. Pariser replied, "When an individual makes a copy of a song for himself, I suppose we can say he stole a song." Making "a copy" of a purchased song is just "a nice way of saying 'steals just one copy'," she said.

Mind you, this group of individuals includes people who own Sony hardware - various MP3 players, the PSP, the Vaio - the list goes on a long way. Is Pariser consulting with Sony's hardware division so that they can build in heavy-handed ways of preventing this kind of *cough* theft *cough*?

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