It’s the letter of the law: media shifting is legal in some places where downloading a copy from an unofficial site is not. Also, there are people out there who would not have the first idea where to look for an existing rip.
I don’t know the situation in all of the countries, but the ones I know that allow you to make a copy of what you purchased also require that in making a copy you are not allowed to break any DRM. I don’t think there are many media being sold that do not include some kind of DRM these days.
Edit: agree that people may not know how to pirate stuff but ripping something in decent enough quality also requires quite specialist knowledge.
There are so many high quality rips out there. Bothering to rip these yourself makes not much sense, unless its very obscure stuff.
It’s the letter of the law: media shifting is legal in some places where downloading a copy from an unofficial site is not. Also, there are people out there who would not have the first idea where to look for an existing rip.
I don’t know the situation in all of the countries, but the ones I know that allow you to make a copy of what you purchased also require that in making a copy you are not allowed to break any DRM. I don’t think there are many media being sold that do not include some kind of DRM these days.
Edit: agree that people may not know how to pirate stuff but ripping something in decent enough quality also requires quite specialist knowledge.
And a mix of available copies/qualities are better.
That’s primarily why you’d be ripping stuff. There is so much stuff only available on VHS and DVD.
Most rips tend to apply some compression. Ripping them yourself will generally give you a better result unless you also intend to compress them.
Obi-Wan meme: That’s why I’m here