I think you'd better search for 'Fair Use'. IMHO the whole backup issue falls under that category. If anyone has more specific info, then by all means post it. The way I figure it, only in the USA is what we do technically illegal under the DMCA act. That law clearly states that any attempt to bypass copy protection is forbidden. This mainly concerns cracks. Now there have been moves afoot in the EU to legislate member states in the same way, so in the end we might get the same stupid laws. However, until that happens you can crack the copy protection as much as you want and make as many backups as you like. While technically you have to ask permission of the copyright holder even for backups, this has never really stood up in court AFAIK. So the big media companies in the USA just bought themselves some senators and congressmen et voila, the DMCA. Then they apply as much pressure as they can on europe, et voila : we're next
In the USA, the DMCA has been used for all kinds of weird stuff, like prices (yes ! PRICES) on a website. I just hope SOMEONE responsible comes to his senses before they start jailing people who BOUGHT their damn games and used a crack to be able to play them, in theory anyone in the USA who does this can get a BIG jail time, they just don't have prosecuted it yet.
I can tell you this : if they ever bring out a truly unbackable copy protection or effectively outlaw cracks here, I'm not going to buy a SINGLE game anymore. There are some things I won't stand for, ever.