it is perfectly legal to rip a dvd to your computer for your own personal use. if you start either making copies or make it available for download in any way you are then breaking the law.
I personally use magic DVD ripper, but you have to pay for that, I've heard good things about DVDshrink for a free ripper
cheers, do you have a reliable link for dvd shrink? seems to be a mix of sites with some wanting to charge even though its a freeware from what i can tell.