Sadly, this is true. I ran into this recently with the DVD for the movie Transformers 2. I normally rip all of my movies onto my Boxee system (NOTE: I do this after I purchase the legitimate physical DVD copy of the movie, which I then keep!) It's not only more convenient to pick the movies from a menu, but more importantly for me, with two pre-teen kids in the house DVD's get scratched up fast if don't.
Normally, this is a pretty easy process, but Tranformers 2 apparently has a rather aggressive copy prevention scheme that seems to defeat most DVD rippers. I finally found a ripper that would rip it successfully, but not until after I came very close to returning the damn DVD to the store after a friend at work showed me that the Pirates Bay had not only the full DVD version of Transformers 2 available for download, but the god damn Blue Ray version as well! It would have been easier for me to pirate the damn movie than to format-shift my legitimately purchased copy.
Normally, this is a pretty easy process, but Tranformers 2 apparently has a rather aggressive copy prevention scheme that seems to defeat most DVD rippers. I finally found a ripper that would rip it successfully, but not until after I came very close to returning the damn DVD to the store after a friend at work showed me that the Pirates Bay had not only the full DVD version of Transformers 2 available for download, but the god damn Blue Ray version as well! It would have been easier for me to pirate the damn movie than to format-shift my legitimately purchased copy.