i think your allowed create one back up copy of software/dvd/cd once you dont sell them. a company called DVDXCOPY went to court over their software that could copy a dvd with a click of the button.
I tried to get to the bottom of this a while ago. As far as I'm aware Ireland has no concept of "fair use" in law that would normally govern the making of personal copies of CDs/DVDs etc. for backup purposes. As far as I know all copying of such copyrighted content is technically illegal. This includes ripping to MP3 etc. so obviously many people ignore the technicalities.
Yeah, I thought the same. If its right, then its interesting how companies like sony can produce music on cds AND make [broken link removed] AND be so vocal on defending [broken link removed]. Do they expect people to buy separate versions of their music in digital format for their mp3 players?
edit: I know that digital rights case in the link was for music sharing as opposed to an individual copying a cd for their own use, but sony havent made their stance clear on that as far I can find.
Lots of interesting news/discussion of these issues over on [broken link removed] (search results for 'copyright' in their News section; I think the link may have a built-in timeout).