What is certainly true is this: Though it may not have been the goal of those who initially started coding emulators and dumping ROMs, emulation is absolutely vital to the preservation of gaming history. This divide will likely never be truly crossed, as neither of these arguments has a monopoly on truth. Players see them as a solution to the problem of scarcity. Publishers see emulators as enabling unfettered piracy.
That this occurs without the consent of the copyright holder seems to not matter at all to the millions-billions, probably-of people who have at one point or another touched an emulator. For going on two decades now, it’s been trivially easy to go online and, within a few minutes, be playing the classic video games of yesteryear on your PC.
