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.

…unless its very obscure stuff.

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.

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