OK, assuming it is legal to do so (burning a back-up copy of an expensive DVD, for my own personal use, WITH written permission from the movie company, etc., etc.)- How do you do it?  I'm sure there are programs to copy DVD's on your computer, but I've never seen any.  Anyone know how to do this or where to get the software?  [thinking]

pick yourself up a second copy at the store.

while I'm at it, I'll wipe my ass with some dead presidents...

I just did a search on google. The first five hits or so all were in reference to legal battles being fought between people who either produced, supplied on a web site, or used DVD copying software. IIRC, the Kalifornia Supremem Court will be waying in on this case shortly.
However, there were several sites that had software available for download.
YMMV.

I have a DVD player/VCR that'll record un-copy protected DVDs to cassette. I dont tape movies that I want, as generaly the DVDs are worth it with all the extra features, etc, but I'm a huge fan of Japanese Anime, and often these DVDs are EXORBITANTLY priced, running in excess of $300 for a 26 episode series (half an hour an episode). Some times they are bought by US companies, usually Disney, and they 'edit' the movies or shows and ruin them, so I'm left with no other choice than to borrow the original Jap release with US sub-titles, and record it.

To rip to CDRs:
http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdripping.htm

To copy to tape:
http://www.dvd-wizards.com/darrenk/

Fritz

thanks

[url]http://www.divx-digest.com/software/index.html[/url]
[url]http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/downloads/ripping.html[/url]

Its difficult to do on Apple/MS operating systems as the decoding was kept a secret per the consortium agreement.  Along came the Linux crowd where almost all code is public domain and not many corporate sponsers of this OS.  Where ther is a will.....

A few adroit programmers armed with their collective heads cracked the code on a marginally protected DVD system.  In doing so, they were also able to discover how to snag the private key (about 400 of these are out there) of virtually any consortium member...

Armed with such knowledge, they released a beta of the decryption program code thus enabling those running Linux to use their players on encrypted DVD's they had purchased.  What crime had been committed?  Well, since this code was now in the public domain, one didn't need to be a member of the consortium (Apple and MS are) to create equipment/software to read such protected disks.

Of course the consortium balked in legal channels making such code quasi-illegal.  A Linux advocacy group, CopyLeft (a parody on copyright) printed tee shirts with this illegal code, these were too deemed illegal.

Of coourse the code hasn't been eradicated and in certain circles, you may find it traded freely if you have the proper connections.  Trading it can get one in serious trouble, hence its underground status....

Its called D#e^C%S@S*.....remove the non-alphabetical characters the case is correct.

Screw the DMCA and all its UnConstitutional glory.

double-u double-u double-u dot dee oh oh em nine dot oh arr gee

Go to "The Guides" and read the relavant sections. Then read them again until you understand them.

I'm advocating fair-use here, not piracy.

As Keith_J said, the Linux crowd managed to crack the encryption. Now, hackers on Mac and Windows have created programs that will do the cracking for you nice and easy. I have a mac, and I also have a program that will do most of the things you could want to do with DVDs. I don't really know about Windows, but I'd be very suprised if there wasn't a windows program that did similar things.