> > I mean you could have written mostly the same slippery-slope tirade the first day a > > copyright holder sent in a C&D. > > Which no copyright holder has ever done.
Oh really? Ever try to distribute (free or not) any Gottlieb ROMs (especially the pinball ROMs)? Ever try to distribute (again, even free), PDF copies of any Gottlieb manuals?
And why have several ROM web sites gone away in the past couple of years? It wasn't because the owner of the web site retired or just lost interest. It was because Namco or Nintendo (I don't remember which or it might have been another company all together), started threatening them.
I know for a fact that the Gottlieb copyright holder sends C&D letters. And just from what I've read, the ROM web site owners got something even stronger than a C&D letter. Enough so that even ROM sites that hadn't received such a letter yet closed up shop.