I download audiobooks from the California State Library System. The files are DRM protected, and after 14 days they cease to work.

I have software that removes the DRM from the files and converts them to MP3 format so I can listen to them on my empeg or on a portable MP3 player after the 14 day expiration.

The library's website says that they do not allow this, although I don't know why -- maybe for no better reason than "Them's the rules and you gotta follow 'em." I look at this as no more heinous than time-shifting "Mythbusters" or "Nova" on my TiVo and watching it the next day.

There are no library fees associated with downloading the audiobooks, although perhaps the library pays a fee to the publisher every time an audiobook is downloaded. I cannot fathom how my listening to the audiobook at my convenience rather than during an arbitrary two-week period can conceivably harm either the library or the publisher.

Am I missing something here?

tanstaafl.