When addressing the legality of copying any electronic form of intellectual property, there is always debate. Whether talking about music, movies or games, manufactures fight to protect their copyrights, individuals fight to protect their investments and the reality of illegal piracy makes finding a mutually beneficial solution nearly impossible.
Typically, the public looks to the Fair Use Act and the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 to define their rights. Though open to interpretation, in a nutshell, these Acts say that you may legally make a copy for personal backup purposes, if you were the one who bought (and still own) the original.
This backup/archival copy exception is a very narrow limitation relating to a copy being made by the rightful owner of an authentic game to ensure he or she has one in the event of damage or destruction of the authentic game, not for the purpose of acquiring financial gain.
The Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 also states that copyright holders can't sue the average user for making home copies of their music. But the studios' lawyers say that the recording companies are not required to make available the technology to make backup copies. This means that manufacturers of electronic media will try to make their products as challenging as possible to copy.
