Originally Posted by Dialtone

I recently broke down and bought a DVD recorder that also has a VCR. The thought was to transfer my VCR movie library to DVD's, since VCR tapes are going the way of the dinosaurs. Seems there is some built in protection mechanism against copying some tapes. Home camcorder tapes are no problem and copy over just fine, but not the commercial content movies we have purchased over the years.

That's what copy protection is for!.

I know the industry is totally paranoid over the piracy issue, but I did not rent these tapes, I purchased them, and consider them my property.

You consider wrong! - the physical tape is your property, the content isn't!.

Anyone want to enlighten me as to a legal way to port my property onto another medium?

There's no real 'legal' way!, except to buy another copy protected copy on DVD - or you could try a MacroVision removal box?.