I shouldn't be surprised at the amount of "Nintendo is just being Hitler" comments here. (Because invoking Godwin's Law was necessary, it was going to happen, let's get that shit over with.)

Anyway... I shouldn't be surprised, yet I am. The fact is, Nintendo is well within their rights to do this, in fact, they could have gone right to the "further legal action", but they didn't.

Now, as for the legality of ROMs... the laws for making a copy AS A BACKUP theoretically apply to games... though it's not explicitly stated, so that's open for interpretation. Even so, DISTRIBUTION of the ROM is when you get into the messy part. That part is illegal, no matter what, unless you're the holder of the rights.

VC games are ROMs, and I mean the official ones, not any of those oddball hacks to circumvent the VC. They're official ROMs distributed by the rights-holder, running on emulators made by the rights-holder. Nintendo can distribute those if they want, as they are the owner. People get all "well, if I own the cartridge, I own the game". No, you really DON'T. People complain about these downloadable games having the EULA that says the code doesn't belong to them or whatever, that you're licensing it or whatever. Hate to point this out, but that's ALWAYS what the EULA said. Just that now the distribution channels have a means to revoke your access to the content if you breach that contract. Call it a gray area, call it Big Brother, call it whatever, you're still skirting the law.

Note that I'm not saying I'm squeaky clean in this respect, I've downloaded more than a few "illegal ROMs" in my time, but in the case of most of them, I did eventually buy the real deal... and the majority were honestly games that were only available overseas. Still doesn't make my activity justified. Doesn't make any of your activity justified if you're doing that, either. I don't care if you do it, but don't go and say Nintendo's being unjust for protecting their rights to their software.

Also, on the argument that Nintendo can't shut them all down... I agree. But the fact is, they are in their rights to go after these sites by legal means.