I agree, DRM (Digital Rights Management) is a crock. It basically strips away any rights you have under Fair Use Doctrine.
First off, don't buy DRMed stuff. For any DRMed files you may already have, all is not lost. Although I haven't tried it, FairUse4WM is supposed to be pretty good, and it's free:
http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=FairUse4WM
There's also what's called the "analog hole". Basically, anything that can be played on your computer can be intercepted and recorded. For video, there's a number of apps available. The only one I've used is CamStudio, it does a good job doing a screen capture. Free:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...roup_id=131922
Recording and re-encoding audio can be as simple as using the wizard in VideoLan (VLC Player). Free, also a first-class multimedia player and streaming server:
http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=VLC_media_player
Good luck.
