movie downloads

If I own a dvd movie, am I able to download them for free from sites like veehd,
mediafire or 4shared? I'm having a lot of problems ripping pirates of the caribbean 4
on stranger tides dvd. I would like to buy an archos 70 sometime, but I can't rip the
dvd to any format, without spending another $57 on DVDFab, I already have Aimersoft
Video Converter Ultimate, and it doesn't even load the movie (I think it's because of it
being copy-protected).

is it the same way for music and software (if I already own a copy of it)? Roxio Creator 2010 makes all of my cds skip for some reason, but I'm sure the torrent download of it wouldn't. I need Roxio so I can do BPM to fix up the concerts that I get. WinDVD8 Platinum isn't being made anymore, and I would like to download a torrent of it, but I'll make sure I own a legal copy first.

Hi there
Any DVD will usually play in VLC multi media player (Free).

As for ripping you will need to get something like AnyDVD from Slysoft -- these types of programs are all around 50 USD but if you do a lot of DVD ripping then it's probably 50 USD well spent.

The AnyDvd program will remove the region restrictions as well --- I'm not usually in favour of bypassing protection but the whole idea of region encoding to me seems totally pointless --and annoying when you've LEGALLY PAID for the DVD -- if I buy one in the USA why shouldn't I be able to play it on a laptop bought in Europe especially if you travel between the two from time to time.

Torrents are not usually a good idea -- you will often get "much more than you bargained for" especially these days --it's not only the Viruses you might get but -- but also the US F.B.I who seem to want to become a World police organisation who has 100% control over the Internet might get details of your downloads / torrent activity too.


Cheers
jimbo