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In America you have the right to have one copy of any form of digital media you purchased legally in your possession at any point in time. So if you bought a Musical CD, Software, etc you can make a "backup copy" and store it on your computer or burn it to CD, etc.
Though it's basically stealing to download copyrighted work (if the copyright has relevance in your country) that you don't already have a purchased copy of, it's been this way for many years. Bush didn't have anything to do with it. However, it is much harder to track down the 100,000 people who all downloaded something and then prove that they never owned it beforehand, than to bust the comparatively few people distributing the item(s). This is why (as someone else mentioned) you mainly see the big companies going after servers who distribute their copyrighted material, people who share large amounts of their copyrighted material through programs such as Kazaa, etc.
Though I can't say it's "safe" to download anything you don't have legal rights to, the country you live in, their laws, and your level of discretion in what you do can minimize the chances of any legal action. I'd just be careful what you do, what you download, and where you download from as they are trying to make examples out of people who share files illegally.
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