Ripping

This usually refers to the process of extracting any purchased digital media content—whether it's a movie from a DVD, or your favorite album from a CD—onto your computer hard drive. While it may look like a simple task, sometimes the process can be quite complicated due to reasons such as incompatible file types and/or the media file is protected by the Digital Rights Management. The extracted digital content can then either be: 1) Used only for personal conveniences. For example, you bought a CD of your favorite album, but you also want to listen to it on your smartphone. This is totally okay. OR 2) Shared onto the interwebz so that other people can access the content without buying it. It is usually uploaded on peer-to-peer file sharing/bittorrent tracker sites such as The Pirate Bay. This is pretty much illegal. Ripping should not be confused with pirating, as pirating refers to downloading content that has been already ripped by someone else.