It is an interesting legal exercise to guess why they have done this. For sure..... anything that rips DVD or BD is defeating copyright protection even though the purchaser has legally acquired the content and does not share it with others. I believe the law on this matter is different between US, EU and UK. However selling a fully-functional multi-media player that can play anything, that has a cloud-based naming/artwork service is quite another proposition, particularly when you withdraw the cloud service without notice removing 50%+ of the functionality.
If the US studios go after R_volution again because (like Zappiti) the device 'facilitates' playback of potentially copyrighted content then R_volution is already doomed. Fake it 'til you make it.... I wonder how many cloud-based $900 devices they can sell before they yet again declare the company dead and start up again with a different brand-name elsewhere.
Looks like R_volution and any other any media player that relies on cloud-based facilities is to be avoided like the plague.