The Scene Rules

The scene rules are the standards in the warez scene for releasing warez. These standards are the minimum requirements for a release. The scene rules are defined by groups of people who have been involved in the scene for several years and have established connections to large groups. These people form a committee, which creates drafts for approval of the large groups. In organized warez distribution, all releases must follow these predefined standards to become accepted material. The standards committee usually cycles several drafts and finally decides which is best suited for the purpose, and then releases the draft for approval. Once the draft has been signed by several bigger groups, it becomes ratified and accepted as the current standard. There are separate standards for each category of releases. The scene rules can be updated anytime, though it is most likely that the rules won't change more than 1 or 2 times a year.

Here are some of the scene standards:
Standard Rip Rules 2004
DVDr:
» The DVDr scene rules 2002
» The DVDr scene rules 2003
» The DVDr scene rules 2005
» The DVDr scene rules 2007*
Games:
» The Game-Rip scene rules 2000
» The Game-Rip scene rules 2004
MP3:
» The 2000 MP3 scene rules
» The 2002 MP3 scene rules
» The 2004 "HQ-MP3" scene rules
» The 2005 MP3 scene rules
» The 2005 MP3 scene rules (by Nuclear)
» The 2007 MP3 scene rules
» The 2007 v1.1 MP3 scene rules
DiVX / XViD:
» The DiVX scene rules 2001
» The DiVX scene rules 2002
» The XViD scene rules 2004
» The XViD scene rules 2005
» The XViD scene rules 2005 (Rebuttal)
x264:
» The x264 scene rules 2007
» The x264 scene rules 2007 v2
0DAY:
» The 0day-Rip scene rules 2000
» The 0day scene rules 2002
» The 0day-UTiL scene rules 2002
MDVDr:
» The MDVDr scene rules 2007
» The MDVDr scene rules 2007
Note: Same year, different groups. Unconfirmed which is official.
TV:
» The TV-Rip scene rules 2003
» The TV scene rules 2007
» The TV x264 scene rules 2007
PDA:
» The PDA scene rules 2002
» The PDA Trainer scene rules 2005
MViD:
» The MViD scene rules 2003
» The MViD scene rules 2005
» The MViD scene rules 2006
Other:
» The SVCD scene rules 2002
» The XBOX360 scene rules 2007**
» The WMV HD scene rules 2007
» The XXXDVDr scene rules 2004
» The Covers scene rules 2004
» The MiniDVDr scene rules 2005
» The Mac-OSX scene rules
» The XXX Paysites scene rules 2006
» The PPC XViD scene rules
» The Pressbooks scene rules 2004
PSP Movies:
» The PSP scene rules 2005
» The PSP scene rules 2006
AUDiOBOOK:
» The AUDiOBOOK scene rules 2003
» The AUDiOBOOK scene rules 2006

Foreign:
- Dutch
» The Dutch TV scene rules 2006
» The Dutch TV scene rules 2007
- German:
» The German DVDr scene rules 2005
» The German SVCD scene rules 2002
» The German TV scene rules 2005
» The German TV scene rules 2007
» The German XViD scene rules 2001
» The German XViD scene rules 2004
» The German PSP Movies scene rules 2006
- Sweden:
» The SweSub scene rules 2004
» The SweSub scene rules 2005
» The SweSub scene rules 2007
- French:
» The French Covers scene rules 2007
» The French Covers scene rules 2007 v2
» The French TV scene rules 2005
» The French TV scene rules 2007
» The French XViD scene rules 2006
» The French x264 scene rules 2007
» The French Anime scene rules 2004
» The French Anime scene rules 2005
- Polish:
» The Polish Standard Rip Rules 2004
» The Polish E-Books scene rules 2006
- Italian:
» The Italian XViD scene rules 2006

As taken from (1) wikipedia, (2) d0pe0r, (3) Datuve and (4) Nukenet.
* Fake, listed groups did not sign it
** Unofficial

Why these rules?
The scene rules may seem a little strict, but they certainly are not there to bother rippers. There are several reasons why these rules exist:

1. The rules enforce high quality releases only, so no worries about bad quality, errors or other bad stuff.

2. Because the releases are divided into small parts you don't have to worry about re-downloading the whole release if something goes wrong. You can check everything that everything has been downloaded correctly by checking the SFV-file. Hence you will always know whether or not you've downloaded a complete uncorrupt release of what you were downloading.
This means that you will have the exact same files on your computer, when you've downloaded and extracted the release, as the person who first ripped the movie and created the release.

3. The rules lead to a standardized way of sharing, which the downloads obviously benefits greatly from. You will learn to recognize a good release and be spared the inconvenient trouble/surprise of poorly ripped movies by amateurs. Also it's much easier to compare releases with eachother.

4. Scene releases always contain all the information about how it's ripped, what the quality is etc. This way you'll always know what you're downloading.