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What's not clear though is if you're allowed to extract the ROM to be used in another emulator. While copying the ROM for "backup purposes" is likely legal, any other kind of copying is grey, at least as grey as downloading a ROM for a game you own on physical media.

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Unless there is some language in the purchase agreement/terms of service that specifically prohibits extracting the ROM, you are in the clear. I highly doubt such language exists.

But who cares? You purchased the software, you can do whatever you want with it, and going this route is already going above and beyond what most normal people do, which is pirating the ROMs.

The GoG and Steam sources I mentioned don't have any copyright circumvention prevention, at least as far as I could find, and so DMCA provisions against circumventing those digital locks shouldn't apply.

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