Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5903643-20161215232743/@comment-27441478-20161220235829

The Emulators themselves are not considered Piracy because it itself contains no copyrighted content (unless you count trademark infringement but people rarely use company names for their Emulators), only the roms are considered Piracy.

But then again, games aren't exactly like art pieces, music, movies or literature. It can only be accessed through a secondary device.

For example, the Sega Genesis and Official Copies of Sonic the Hedgehog 1 are no longer being official manufactured, let alone sold in any parts of the world, (even the one for iOS is an emulated re-make, not a true copy) Because of this, there is no other way of accessing this copyright content other than Pirating the Rom and using it on an Emulator since there no longer exists any means. Regardless, the creators would neither lose or gain money from this action anyway. The same can not be said for newer games where both physical copy of games and consoles may still be available on the market.