It's certainly not legal. Unless a company puts something into the public domain, their copyright lasts for, what, 70 years? I don't know how long exactly, but even the copyright on Atari games has yet to expire from what I know. It is legal, however, to back up something you purchased yourself, from what little I know of copyright law. I bought FF1 10 years ago or so. It would be legal for me to backup my ROM to my computer, if I had the means to do it. Is it legal to download a ROM someone ELSE backed up? I don't know. Even if the data is identical, I don't know if it still classifies as "backup". If you didn't ever pay for the game though, it's illegal to own it.

As far as ethics, if you pay for something, I think you have the right to do whatever you want with it, including copying an NES cart to your computer to play it that way. So far as downloading games you never paid for, you're taking the product of someone else's hard work and owning it and using it without compensating the person who created it. If you believe in human rights, specifically the right to own property, and the right to profit from things you produce, then it isn't ethical, no. A person should be able to decide how their own work is distributed. I can't decide for you that your game should be free just because I want it to be, unless the law says otherwise.

Now some people want to change copyright law to make copyrights expire much much sooner. For example 10 years. Some people argue that if a person can't conceivably make profit from something any longer, it should be make public domain so that society can benefit. If I write a really good book or video game, and I die 10 years after it's created, I can't even GIVE my consent to let that book or game enter the public domain any longer. And so eventually it will just cease to exist in any form; the law will protect my work right out of existence. If NES went out of business tomorrow, for example, old NES games would still not be public domain, so far as I know; they would NEVER be public domain, and if people respected the law, NES games would cease to exist, once all the current carts deteriorated and stopped working.

<i>as for everything else, so long as you delete it from your computer less than 24 hours after download, you're still fine</i> --DeBlayde

Sorry, that's pure myth, so far as I know.

<i>Its putting a dent in the outrageous salaries these companies are making and that lets them know what it feels like to be "the common man". I dont think theres a thing wrong with it.</i> --Enoki

So, say you were selling a car you own, and you decide you want $40,000 for it. Someone decides your price is too high; does that mean they can take your car for free, to teach you a lesson?

You have no RIGHT to own games and music. You have the right to buy it at the price people sell it for, and you also have the right not to pay for it, i.e. not to own it. You have no right to get everything you want for the price you want to pay.