Years ago, I used to record "Top of the Pops" from my transistor radio onto my cassette tape recorder - for my own personal use. Nowadays, because I cannot get broadband where I am and am stuck with a slow dial up connection or even slower mobile "broadband", I cannot listen to Last.fm without frequent stops (and it doesn't pause and buffer like YouTube), so I download (using Firefox + DownloadHelper) and listen to tracks in their entirety later. Is this illegal? If so, what's the difference to the recordings of my teenage years?
Yes this is illegal, as was taping the programme from your radio. You now have a copy of the songs to keep and listen to without paying the original artist a penny.