I'm looking forward to the DMCA being tested in the courts for a home user making a backup for their personal use at home. There are a whole lot of gray areas that I have heard discussed. It has never had such a test case go up through all the courts up to the Supreme Court. When it does go through the courts and the result is VERY CLEAR -- only then will we really know if we are being scofflaws. Plus if the decision goes against the home user doing backups of purchased material for their own personal and non-public usage -- then I predict a political storm and people will give their congressmen a very hard time.
In the future the new idea of Mandatory Managed Copy in the AACS used for HD DVD and Blu-ray high definition video discs may solve the issue of making hard drive/media server copies from AACS media. Users get to do what they want and content providers have protection. It will require a "phone home" feedback to the content provider to issue a license to the user.
Bob