Sadly, that is not true for DVDs. A number of courts have ruled, and been upheld, that you can not use the technology that copies DVDs. True, they haven't actually said that copying the DVD is illegal (thus maintaining fair use standards). But they have ruled that it is illegal to use the technology that does the copying, if it is a copy protected disk. Which in essence means that it is illegal to copy a commercial DVD.
Hmm I will have to look into that..because my understanding is that what is illegal is the software that strips the copy protection from the DVD..there are archive softwares that dont strip the protection because they dont actually copy the disk but (divx stuff) Software that strips the copy protection and then copying the actual disk is illegal..but the other way its legal because it falls unde rthe fare use.
I havent looked into it in depth however so you may be right..but that is my understanding...
Indeed there are DVD copy software that actually have disclaimers like INtervideo's DVDCopy where it detects a copywritten DVD and pops up a message saying that they cant sell software that strips DVD protection but if you use someonelses software to strip the protection then you can copy it...etc etc..