It's not exactly like doing it yourself because you're paying someone else to do it for you? Again, these grey areas are where the spirit of intent is going to

It's not exactly like doing it yourself because you're paying someone else to do it for you? Again, these grey areas are where the spirit of intent is going to matter. Is it illegal to pay a neighborhood kid to rip all your CDs to mp3? Technically yes (in Australia), but it seems reasonable to argue that it's within the spirit of format shifting provisions. Is it illegal for a company to sell customised "newspapers" filled with ad free content taken from ad supported sites? Again, yes. But in this case it feels to me like it may be harder to convince a court that the service is the same as printing out pages from a website on your own printer. I'm not a lawyer and I don't claim to be an expert. I do think this story has some parallels to the Aereo legal battle that's unfolding right now. I also think the writer of the original article is a bit up himself. Edit: maybe "illegal" isn't the right term to use, but rather, "in breach of copyright".