Emulators. Are. Legal.

This was settled with the Sony/Bleem debacle. Bleem only provided the software by which one could emulate PSX games but the never the ISO files themselves. Those files could only be provided by the end user regardless of how they obtained them. Sony, of course, couldn’t give less of a shit and sued them anyways. Judges, however, took Bleem’s side on the basis that no copyright infringement had been committed on their behalf. Although Bleem would ultimately win ever lawsuit brought against them, the sheer size of the legal costs led to their closure which makes you if that Sony’s endgame the whole time.

Here’s a video by Nerrel about the legality of emulation. It’s from 2020 but it is still relevant.