He was wrong - if you owned the DVD's you may make unlimited copies of them for personal use. You can do this in order to preserve the pristine quality of your original. You cannot give or sell those copies to anyone. If you are a teacher, you may show a part of the copy on a spontaneous, unplanned basis to students, if it's for an educational purpose.
But, if you did not buy (you rented) the DVD, you're in violation of federal law. If you do not have proof that you own the DVD (which is why buying from Apple is handy - Itunes provides proof of your purchase every time you sign in, and you can show this to LE to support your case), you are in trouble. If you had a picture of the cover of the DVD and the receipt for it, you'd be good.
I know all this because I teach a research methods course and serve on my college's ethics committee. We've had federal representatives and private attorneys come and present on these matters - there's no complete agreement. Some would say "only one copy at a time," but under the ADA, I was able to claim that having to carry an entire library of DVD's, any one of which I might need to show scientific images to my students during any particular class, was in violation of my rights to be accomodated for a disability - I make several copies and store them in locked cabinets in the classroom, which were built for that purpose. The original stays in yet another location.
Librarians are banned from doing the same thing, as I understand it, which is interesting, but the average citizen may make copies of VHS, DVD and CD's already owned and legally purchased.
Problem is, as always, do you have proof of ownership? I believe the burden of proof is on the person who makes the copy, as I understand the federal law.
They are really cracking down on this kind of thing:
http://thresq.hollywoodreporter.com/...e-pirates.html
and most teachers I know will not use our new DVD copying machines out of fear that they might violate the law. I of course would not use the work environment to copy for personal use.
I've never learned to put a DVD onto my laptop without paying for it and downloading it - if you have to use any kind of software to defeat the protection supplied by the manufacturer, you're definitely in a gray area. Our copier machines at school are approved for educational use.