Is emulation really a crime? Final Fantasy example.

Yeah so I traded in the bad copy of Dragon Force with a heavy heart on Tues. I will find a working copy somewhere...

But I did get a lovely copy of Final Fantasy 3 (FF6 in Japan). What a kick ass 32 bit game!

This leads to me ask the question, is emulation really wrong?

Way back in 2000 "This guy I know" played this game through a emulator once.

It really made me want to play the game and get more Final Fantasy products.

To this date I have bought FF 1+2, 4 and5 NEW for the GBA. FF 7, 8, 9 X, X2, FF Tactics FF crystal Chronicals and XII for the Playstation 1 and 2 and Gamecube. Eventually when I find one for a decent price I am gonna get a DS and Final Fantasy 3. And even though I have FF6 for my SNES I am probably gonna buy the PS versions and the GBA version.

I actually bought most of this stuff new from actual retailers. I did this because I liked the games so much. When I really like games I try to buy new copies.

...So because "This guy I know" emulated a Final Fantasy game that was from 1994 in 2000 I bought all these games...

So how the hell can it be considered a crime to try out older games?

Because "This guy I know" tried out a game that was 6 years old I have bought almost ALL the Final Fantasy games out there in recent years.

It's total bull to consider it stealing if the game is no longer in stores or easily available in some offline form. Crap like PSO Blue Burst or Gametap requires you to have computers and internet connections to play games that used to be on consoles...what if you do not have that stuff?

Fans of the games WILL buy remakes even if they already have the game. So that's not an arguement. They are STILL SELLING Final Fantasy One for shits sake...

I think that the shareware system somewhat worked. It's too bad that nowadays it's way too difficult to get decent demos because of the size of files...

In any case the gaming industry shouldn't be pricks about people wanting play older games.