The Complete Guide to Whether It Is Legal to Rip DVD's

Well, there are many reasons you might want to rip a DVD. Maybe you want to watch your favorite movie on your computer, smartphone or tablet instead of lugging around a physical copy, or maybe you want to create a backup in case your DVD gets scratched or damaged. Whatever your reasons, there are a few things you need to know before you rip that DVD.

Ripping DVDs has long been a popular way to back up precious memories, or to create a digital library of your favorite movies and TV series. But is it legal? The short answer is: it depends. Next, I will explain separately based on different cases.

Q: "I downloaded a commercial DVD rip for my friend, but it turned out to be an illegal copy. Now I'm really scared that the FBI or my ISP will come after me."

A: People's store-bought DVD collections are always copy-protected or DRM-ed. In 2006, the U.S. Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which made it illegal to circumvent DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection on DVDs. This means that it's illegal to create a software program that can bypass DVD DRM protection. Another way of saying it is, the moment you crack DRM to rip the DVD, you've violated the DMCA.

However, the DMCA contains an exception for "fair use." This means that you can legally rip a DVD for personal use, as long as you don't violate any of the other copyright laws. What does this mean in practice? You can rip a DVD for your own personal use, but you can't distribute the ripped file to others. You also can't make a copy of the ripped file for someone else.

So, in a nutshell, if you rip DVD's and restrict the copies to your own personal use, you're probably safe. The FBI won't be likely to come knocking on your door. But if you want to share the ripped file with others, you could be violating the law. And of course, the policies range widely from country to country about this question. Please check out the Wikipedia Page to learn if ripping a DVD is out of bounds in your country, to avoid breaking the law. If what has been said above makes no mention the copyright law of your country, before ripping a DVD, you’d better get a clear understanding of your local legal regulations by collecting the relevant documentation.

So, what about my homemade DVDs? Can I legally rip a DVD made by myself? The answer, unfortunately, is not clear. There is no specific law that says whether ripping a homemade DVD is legal or not.

However, there are some general principles that you can apply. In my humble opinion, as you are the copyright owner of this homemade DVD, you certainly have the right to extract the DVD for your personal use as long as it doesn't involve your sensitive content and privacy leaks.

Actually, there are many options available, but in consideration of DVD decrypting capacity, ripping speed, output quality, and ease of use, I strongly recommend WonderFox DVD Ripper Pro. It is a professional DVD ripping application with advanced decryption technology, which is capable of copying both homemade or commercial DVDs to MP4, MKV, AVI, MP3, and 300+ optimal presets. The cool black UI and self-explanatory layout make it fairly easy-to-use.

Free downloadFree download the best DVD ripper and follow the instructions to legally rip the DVD for personal use.

To sum up, ripping DVD's is a complex legal landscape, and you should be careful to make sure you're not violating any laws. Someone stands for the strict law and responds that ripping copy-protected DVDs for personal use is still technically illegal, even if you just want to make a backup on your computer.

On the flip side, however, most people are more willing to accept such a point of view: I bought the DVD's, I have made back up copies of my own DVD's and I don't share them or put them on the Internet or sell them. My backup copies are just that back ups in case my store bought DVD gets scratched or becomes unplayable for whatever reason, it’s for my personal use. Therefore, why is it illegal to rip a DVD? It turns out that you're more likely not going to get into trouble or caught for that matter.

Actually, it's always an ongoing debate on whether or not it's legal to rip DVDs. Hopefully, I was able to shed some light on the matter and help you decide where you stand on the issue. Any different ideas? Your thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks for reading.