There is a bill in committee in the House of Representatives right now called the Digial Media Consumers' Rights Act (DMCRA). One of the things that it would explicitly state is that it is not illegal to circumvent encryption of make copies of media for fair use / non-infringing purposes.
It would be great if people wrote their congressmen asking them to support this bill if/when it reaches the floor. In fact, I just happen to have a link to a form you can print. I had an online form that would send it to your representative automatically, but I can't find it right now. If I do, I'll post it.
Letter linkage