I live in the UK but I accept US law affects business practices and other governments' policies so much that it might as well be everywhere.

Yeah...that's probably why he added the for the US part...

ok... were you contradicting me? I'm sorry, but I really can't see your point. All emulators are legal, period I said that, and I also listed ways you can play games legally through an emulator. Dolphin, PSN, Wii etc. 

nice posts guys, i guess for myself i see it as piracy if you do not own the originals, but that doesnt stop me from using emulators anyway

dolphin is not legal,its on pc

psn is legal as sony uses it to sell and play its own games

sony can license where to play or not,a consumer can't

thats why ps1 emulator was taken off android

Emulators are completely legal. ROMs aren't. 

That being said, Dolphin is an emulator, there for it is legal. If I download a PS2 emu right now I can play my PS2 games on it legally. 

emulators aren't legal

its just that they aren't so widely used so nobody has made a law agaunst them

that way PS1 emulator shouldn't have been taken off the android market

I'm just going to post this link.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2386126,00.asp

So to end, emulators aren't illlegal downloading ROMs are 

For Most Countries and states, the law is as follows.

If you download a ROM file, and play an old game on an emulator, it's not considered piracy if you own a copy of that game. Say for instance I own a copy of Chrono Trigger for SNES or Virtual Console. Regardless of if my cartridge works (It could even be in the factory sealed box), I am legally allowed to download a ROM file of the game as backup, and play the backup version.

However if I don't own the original game, then it is an illegal download.

As for new games, say I get Dolphin for PC, which allows me to play Wii games without an actual Wii console. I can legally buy Wii discs and put them in my PC and play them that way. I do not have to play Wii (or 360/PS3) games on a console, I can legally play them on PC. I don't even need a console controller, I could use my keyboard if I prefer. I could even buy the game and keep it factory sealed, and play a downloaded copy. However I must own a copy of the game for it to be legal.

That trade-off is that there is no guarantee a PC emulator or Modified system will play the game. For instance I own a copy of Chrono Cross and I own a PS2 and in the past have owned a PS1 and PS3. However my PS1/PS3 broke, and my PS2 is basically bust as it only reads a few select games, typically scratch free ones. I've tried multiple PC emulators, but nothing plays Chrono Cross, so I'm left sad.

What buying a console does is guarantee that the games for that console will work on it for the duration of the warranty at least. That, and a physical box, is what you are paying for.

As long as you actually own a copy of the game, you are free to play it anyway you like. On a console, on PC as a backup, even on your cell phone if you can.