Ha, you thought this was a rom request!

no, my question is about the legality of sites that have roms up for download. I remember several years ago that it was always illegal, under any and all circumstances. Now i hear that there is a 10year limit to the copyright. Also, i have noticed that rom sites that used to get taken down quite easilly aer up and doing fine... like romnation.net for example. Am i missing something? is it now ok to own and / or distribute roms? could anyone put some up on their site? I know that the nintendo revolution is going to have free roms for download so is that why it is ok now?

Just curious. Thanks,
Jeremy