best external drive for ripping CDs

noske

... I’d enjoy examining the law which makes it illegal to give away a copy.

Feel free, but it's at the very basis of copyright law. The underlying principle of intellectual property and copyright law is that it allows control of distribution, from which royalties and other revenue derives. You can't give away free copies of copyrighted material because only the copyright holder can control distribution. But making copies for personal use is perfectly fine.

That's silly. Ripping CDs for personal use on a home network is no different than making mix tapes in the old days on cassette or reel. It's perfectly acceptable use.