Emulation - The Legalities, Ethics, Benefits and Drawbacks

[Pemalite]

Cerebralbore101 said:

Emulation is not always piracy. If you legally own the files then it isn't piracy. That's one of the first things I ever said in any emulation thread on this site. 

But if you don't legally own the files for the game that you are emulating then it is piracy. 

"By using this emulator you agree to provide your own files legally."

Sure thing. ;)

Emulation doesn't mean you are going to be running any commercial software.
It is literally just replicating the hardware environment in software on a different platform, thus it cannot be tied piracy.

It's like someone buying a car, the car manufacturer cannot be blamed for someone going over the speed limit, they built and provided the vehicle, the onus is on the end user to trend the legal line.

VGPolyglot said:

I just acknowledge the benefits of emulation.

So you should. Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Atari, Sega, Apple, Google and more all use emulation to suit their own ends.
Even companies like GoG use emulation to repackage older games and resell them to consumers.