It's actually not a gray area at all, if you bypass the copy protection or DRM, it's illegal if you're making a "backup" of anything. Even if it's one you own. The law is pretty clear on that. I would guess most, if not all, store bought bluray movies have copy protection, or software wouldn't exist to bypass it. So the sad part of your story is that he is breaking the law by even making a backup in the first place. Wil you get prosecuted? Probably not. But you're still hacking past protected/encrypted material, and that's illegal. Think of it like this: If you hacked your bank security to look at your checking account, you still broke the law. Sure, it's your money, but you had to hack through security to get there. /end my 2c