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by P5fRxh5kUvp2th 1275 days ago
It's the law in the US.

You can RIP copyrighted content of physical media you own for backup purposes, but you cannot share it.

This is why ripping a music CD you own is perfectly legal, but if you upload it that is not legal, nor is downloading it from someone elses upload.

Some people in the emulation community do actually adhere to this, but the vast majority do not, as you noted.
1 comments
hansvm 1274 days ago
Not sure about other content, but for games (and other programs) in particular this isn't quite true in the US (Copyright Act -- Section 117). You're explicitly able to authorize another individual to do the ripping on your behalf, and they can transfer to you the result. Websites offering those for download are problematic because they usually don't verify ownership or take any steps to ensure copies are destroyed or transferred when the underlying media is transferred.

Also, IANAL, but I suspect the order of events might get somebody into hot water. Although the effect on the creator would be the same, I'm not sure it's legal to (1) make a backup, (2) be authorized to make a backup by a media owner, and (3) transfer it -- as opposed to (2,1,3). I.e., hosting the content perpetually might be illegal regardless of your access controls. That isn't a problem with upload/download/sharing per se, but it does potentially make doing so more complicated.

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