I don't know what the deal is in the relevant jurisdictions, but in Swedish copyright law, the provenance of the original matters ("lovlig förlaga").

This means that it's not legal to download a rip of e.g. a CD that was uploaded without consent, even if you own a copy.

(This exception to the general right to make copies for private use was added in 2005 to make downloading illegal -- previously, only uploading was infringing.)

I would assume just the act of downloading this content was illegal in the relevant US jurisdictions as well.