Netbook, DVDs, watching films

[madcows]

Hi there,
This will probably sound very stupid, but I'm completely ignorant and need some help.
I want to know how / if I can put DVDs onto a harddrive, so that I can play them on my new netbook (without a DVD drive, obviously)... and without having to buy an external one. Is there special software to do this? Is it legal? etc

Next question - related - is there a way of downloading films from the internet? I'm thinking of old runs of series... or old classics (Bambi, etc!) I want to be able to do this when we are not online.

Then I guess the next question is whether films take up huge amounts of space???

Answers in simple terms, please!
madcows

there is a way of hooking up your DVD player to rip films onto your computer, I believe.

I have a kit that does it for video (leads in/out of computer, software to convert the files).

it is faffy, and timeconsuming, but doable.

re: downloading films - itunes is what I use (mostly because I am converting my stuff to use on an ipod/ipod compatible DVD player anyway).

converted films do take up a fair bit of space. as do downloaded omes /i guess. off the top of my head up to around 4gb, I think. so lots of space needed - I store all mine (in itunes library) on an external drive rather than clog up mu PC - wouldn't contemplate it on ost laptops tbh.