Legacy Items in the strictest sense are any magical item build before the founding of the T.C.A. which is the country in which Night School takes place. More practically though it referse only to those items which are actually illegal to own, use or construct.

Given the monumental nature of trying to round up and destroy all legacy in the TCA the authorities have taken a more relaxed approach and generally don't go kicking down people's doors looking for legacy except for truely dangerous items. They will however not ignore it if one comes to light.

Mainly they are asking for co-operation from the citizens in rounding up and destorying legacy items and are attempting to educate children as to the dangers of said items.

Many legacy items are still out their either owned by collectors, hidden as family treasures (they want Grand Ma's wand? Never!) and most often simply because the owner are not aware the item is either magical or on the banned list.

Hm. Well, that definitely helps put it into perspective. So the only thing that's really consistant with all the legacy items is they're… old. Not necessarily dangerous, though there are definitely dangerous ones. Am I right?

You seem to have it more or less Nightwing.

I guess a good analogy is like the difference between Drugs and Medication. Technically all mediations are drugs but when people say drugs they usually just mean the illegal ones.

Likewise in the TCA they might refer to even a newly made copy of an illegal magical item as Legacy even though that is just slang and not correct in the litteral sense.