@ NWC Omega
Your wrong, if you own the orriginal copy, in cartridge form, they are not illeagle & are considered backup. On top of that, not all roms are illeagle, only a few N64, Mame/Arcade, etc.
My uncle works for an internet crime department in the seatle police department & as he said to me, as long as you arnt making any money off of them, the law states that you can own them, as long as there isnt a ban on them like in N64 & Mame, which in fact are around the only ones outlawed by law.
Now, you can still be sued for posetion of the roms, but you cannot get jailtime in any state in the US, except for the rare few roms that are on the banned list.
I just hope that this clears up some of the facts. I just wanted to add one last thing, you can own any rom for 24 hours without any actions being taken, by law, otherwise you will either be sued or you will get jailtime depending on what roms you download.
@ Troan
If you own the orrigial cart, then you can download it, since you already payed for it, & still own it, it is leagle in every way.