I'm sure I'll get lynched for this, but I have no qualms downloading music or games from the internet --- especially if the item is next to impossible to get otherwise. Seriously, am I going to cruise Ebay for an obsure Commodore 64 title, or some old dos game that the publisher admits that they'll never remake? In my opinion, it doesn't matter if you buy something used vs. downloading it -- the original company doesn't get money in either case. If you follow the book industry, publishers HATE used book-stores, because they don't get a cut. So if we're talking about respecting copyright, etc., almost everyone, every day breaks it.
I'm a big fan of free information, and our culture is geared toward copying things. We have copiers for paper, vcr's and dvd-r's for movies, internet for mp3's and games. We'd have to have a serious shift in doing business with just about everything to change that.
I should end by saying that I do think it is good not to host a rom site yourself or link to one, and I also think it is good to observe the rules on forums such as this one, and not broadcast roms, etc. I just wanted to give my own justifications for why I think rom dumping, etc., is okay (though obviously not legal -- but I guess you can see that I don't really respect current copyright law). I also wanted to say that I would be very, very surprised if most of use didn't download roms or music of some type -- especially all us emulator freaks.
Okay, off the immoral soapbox.
