Ripping/Burning/Syncing/etc...

Am I a complete naive' idiot or is there some sort of jumbled-up "protocol" (LAW), that I just don't know about, in regard to "copying" music that I've purchased, to my own PC and my own disks?

I struggle enough as it is getting things lined-up and set in the correct places to commence the process of what I want to do (I've wasted a good number of disks already just "learning about" Windows Media Player), but now I seem to be coming-across occasional info that states something to the effect that; I "can" (ONLY) rip or burn a selected song/track or disk 'so-many' more times (and it seems to be "SONY Music"? that is controlling or dictating this?). I have wasted even more disks now.

I'm very new to this, so please, what don't I know (yet), and what should I know, please?

Thanks in advance...

 

have a look at this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_BMG_CD_copy_protection_scandal