RIAA suing for copying legally purchased CDs to PC
 

Oh boy more goon squad antics from everyones faviorte thugs the RIAA.

They now claim it's illegal to load a music CD you have purchased onto your computer.

Next up I expect they will sue anyone that plays a CD where people other than the purchaser can hear it.

That link doesn't exactly have all the details. They didn't sue him because he had copies on his computer, they sued him because he had copies on his computer AND Kazaa.

AND those files were made available for sharing.

The defense that Howell went with was that he didn't place the files in a sharing folder. But the RIAA was able to DL the songs and thus sued.

The RIAA assertion was not that Howell simply ripped the songs to his computer, but that he also made them available for sharing.

Other than the Washington Post article (which only references blogs), the only sources I can find supporting the OP are blogs.

A couple of good articles on the topic:
Judge sides with RIAA: file-sharing apps lead to direct infringement
Rip Your CDs; Go to Jail? Or Bankruptcy Court. Despite the article title, the article points out the real details of the Howell case.

Note to self... never make the main music folder accessible to any file sharing software.. then again my sisters stuff is on the media computer and not my production computer or lappy.. though I happen to use her music from time to time without asking any questions after running a virus scan on the media computer

At this time, having Kazza or Limewire on your machine is putting yourself at risk for an RIAA lawsuit. Until the whole 'file sharing' and new media issues shake out it's best to not have file sharing applications on your machine.

Should they be de-installed or are we okay with just not starting up the program?

I have no idea. I presume that the RIAA is downloading music and then tracing where it came from. But I have no idea what they are really doing.

I think Limewire and Kazza are dangerous on a whole other level (viruses) and I have no issue with file sharing.

Actually, you don't even need to download the file to see the IP address.

Worth reading.

And donate to EFF.org, if you can!

I will admit to only having skimmed the article, it appears to be the see the same story of wanting to allow file sharing - effectively saying that it is okay for individuals to steal music. And I don't agree with it.

An artist has the right to give away their music if they want. But other artists who want to get paid for their work should get paid for it.