> "it's legal to distribute pirated copies of games if it's to preserve them" Perhaps you meant to reply to the poster I was replying to. To be clear, I would

> "it's legal to distribute pirated copies of games if it's to preserve them" Perhaps you meant to reply to the poster I was replying to. To be clear, I would never say nor imply "it's legal to..." <anything>, as predicting the legality of some specific scenario is essentially impossible with any degree of confidence. Even expert lawyers, judges and law school professors are frequently incorrect in such predictions. In the U.S. legal system, what is and isn't "legal" varies wildly based on the particular jurisdiction, context, defendant, plaintiff, defense, prosecution, judge, jury, etc involved. And even predicting a given ruling (guilty/not guilty) doesn't tell us on what specific counts, how they were charged or what the sentence or damages may be nor any possible settlements or appeals. Intellectual property law in general and copyright in particular is notoriously complex, nuanced and situational. Especially so for civil actions. That's why I was so careful in my post not to state any opinion regarding legality at all. I only noted that exemptions like "fair use" exist and some copying in some situations is permitted. The answer to anything else is both a) "it depends", and b) "it's complicated."