But it's true, the RIAA/MPAA/TV industry are rabidly fighting this trend and I don't have a lot of confidence in our representatives resisting them.
I don't have a use for that personally, but when I buy a CD or DVD now, I immediately burn a copy of it, and only use that. I learned my lesson when my car was broken into, and they stole a brand new copy of "The Lord of the Rings" unabridged audio book, and I hadn't even gotten a chance to listen to it. I still have the box and receipt at home, and thinking that I had licensed the content, I sent the company a letter, and photocopies of the box cover, the receipt, and the police report. While this might sound silly, IIRC, I paid around $150 for that audiobook, and my auto insurance doesn't kick in with coverage until the loss is $500 (plus I really didn't want to turn it in to my insurance). Basicly, I hoped that I could buy another copy at a discount. I never received a reply. And ever since then, I've burned copies of my media for myself. And I do the same thing with my DVDs... It also motivated me to get a car CD player that understands MP3s, so now I can cruise in my car for 7 or 8 hours at a time without having to change the CD... Of course, I have to fill the gas tank about every 5 hours or so...
Mark
Ditto. I do it for the "youngin" problem. My niece has a tendency to trash DVDs. I buy a movie, immediately rip/re-author just as the main movie. Put the movie in the player and it starts immediately.
As to your issues with the Audio book theft, I'd suggest seeing if it makes it up onto a torrent somewhere. You've certainly got a right to it in my opinion.
I did the same thing. Burned copies of all my CD's, and the originals won't get scratched, broken or stolen. When one of the copies gets scratched beyond repair, broken, or stolen, I still have the originals, and a pack of CD-R's cost very little.