The dictates of copyright law are one thing. But ethically there is nothing that says you can't keep a single you like on your hard drive when your only alternative is to buy a whole CD of junk just for that one track. Anti-piracy advocates might argue that breaking the law is no way to express your displeasure with the marketing techniques and generally low quality of product of the music industry. Instead, they say, you should vote with your pocketbook, exercise consumer choice and refuse to buy lousy music. What these people don't understand is that buying entertainment products is not like voting.
Voting is a responsibility.
Buying CDs is about pleasure. But the fact is that the modern U.S. economy is built on a mountain of consumer debt, with consumption kept artificially high by precisely this kind of marketing. In capitalism, we're taught that demand fuels supply. But that's bunk. The goal of the record industry isn't to give you what you want.