[quote name='yatesl']Instead of messing about with USB sticks or customer service, you can now apparently download it straight from the marketplace.
Hexic HD[/QUOTE]Nice, you can officially bypass customer service!
However, I like the disc/USB flash drive option because my 20 GB Xbox 360 hard drive has only 200 MB free space. I'm not going to waste space on an arcade game! Why not just put it onto a disc or USB flash drive? This saves a bunch of space, especially when some XBLA games are now greater than 2 GB each!
[quote name='yatesl']It's no more 'illegal' that downloading a game from another region (i.e. downloading Aegis Wing to a UK address).[/QUOTE]XBLA games are meant to be shared. Otherwise, Microsoft would have removed or disabled the "Copy" and "Move" options for XBLA games. Microsoft wants you to spread XBLA games to other friends because they will show up as trials. For example, you can put a game onto a USB flash drive and then go over to a friend's house to play. Your friend can now try the game and buy it later without re-downloading. Microsoft wants this to be simple.
[quote name='bullka']Somehow I feel that copying games to USB from the internet is not very legal. Sounds like a modding to me. I prefer downloading them from Marketplace or using the Code (if they're not available in the marketplace.[/QUOTE]It is not modding. You are not modifying any files at all. You are just copying them, which is what Microsoft allows with the "Copy" and "Move" functions.
Getting the XBLA game unmodified from the Internet is the same as getting it unmodified from your friend.
On the other hand, if you were modifying the XBLA files from trial to full without paying, then yes, this is modding, and this requires a modded console. Microsoft does not want this.