The Nintendo quote was just in the mood for this topic (3DS) but it is true that laws vary from country to country
from case to case, and so on.
Now I absolutely agree with the fact some old consoles won't benefit from "sales" anymore so not like by emulating them, they won't perceive money. But anyway copyright is copyright and intellectual property is intellectual property and they can do whatever they please or feel like, after all they "invented" it. A sarcastic Nintendo CEO could tell ya "Ok, then go ahead and invent the game yourself and build your own console to run it on
you don't own anything, it's ours and we can do as we please". But unfortunately internet sometimes has left us with that "I'll do as I please because I can" motto. It's like people going nuts about Apple going nuts about jailbreaks
I mean.. nowhere did it say the iPhone or iPad was yours to do whatever you want.. it comes with some terms, like no-opening of it, no reverse-engineering and so on. You can surely run your truck over it and explode it but the moment you got the iPhone you accepted the fine print that stated the thing, as assembled is yours
but you shall not disassembly it in any way or screw with the software. In the case of jailbreak then it is the breaking of iOS terms where you are supposed to "play by the rules". Im making it up because I never read the fine print so don't quote me on it, but I know at least half devices we own and software we download come with some EULA that states stuff similar to what I said.
Same happens when you buy a house
you can do as you please inside but you are not to build some certain "extensions" that might mess with the walls or common spaces with you neighbors and so on
so no.. it's not really completely "do-as-you-please yours".
Now, getting back on the already off topic discussion (sorry OP):
In the end the amount of people having the actual hardware
that's just probably the 1% (of course everybody on the internet owns all cartridges even the obscure versions only sold in a given country in a given timeframe etc). So that's when I say what's the big deal about just coming straight and say emulation is just piracy and that's it. There will always be a fine line, but still.
It's like official emulation forums
they will all go nuts if people ask "Where can I download X ROM" and ban them and pretend they are so pure, but yet their beta testers have a personal collection of every known ROM (and every accompanying real physical copy of it, right?). And then developers will go crazy saying their intended purpose was bringing "My lil' rotating cube 3D" or other amazing home-brews to life.. no no.. ROM loaders or ISO loaders where just a side-effect
hmmm
yeah.
Now don't go hating Cap'n.. I like emulation as much as you do, it's just I feel a tickle when people discuss how it is so legal and perfectly normal when in reality it's a bit more complicated, at least, from my very own, crazy, PoV
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