It's permissible to create a copy for personal use, so long as you don't distribute the copy. Copyright is primarily about distribution of copies, not the making of copies themselves.
Right but that's a small fig leaf for the people who get sued over this who very much are going beyond personal use. Circling back to it's fine to make a policy argument but dumb to flout the law.
No, copyright law is about the exclusive right to make copies, among other rights. In US law this is 17 USC 106.
The reason making a single copy for personal use is generally considered permissible is because: (1) it may be fair use under 17 USC 107, (2) the copyright owner will probably never find out, and (3) even if the copyright owner found out it probably won’t sue over one copy.
No, but usually the physical media (DVD / BluRay / Cartridge) does. The issue comes in how do you legally create the Rom without bypassing copy protections.
