1SDANi

@SwitchForce NGL, I never understood why "copyright is theft" is the go-to tagline, "copyright is counterfeiting" is both more accurate and WAY more illegal sounding. Everyone knows someone who stole something or had something stolen from them and faced no consequences, but counterfeiting is the big time crime, that's the stuff that gets the FBI after them and gets them sent to jail. Maybe it's not used because it's a mouthful?

@SuntannedDuck2 Dolphin doesn't include any copyrighted code, it includes a cryptographic key, but a cryptographic key is neither code nor copyrightable. At best there's a DRM circumvention claim, but that legal theory is entirely untested and the American Bar Association has stated that its logic is dubious.

@KoopaTheGamer The reason the companies pay it might be because it's required, but it might also be because they don't wish to spend the money fighting a lawsuit on an issue with zero legal precedent.

Ultimately, there is no legal proof that distributing decryption keys is illegal, and while American companies prefer to pay for licenses to decryption keys where possible, American lawyers generally agree that the illegality of using decryption keys without a license is dubious at best.

Ultimately, I doubt Nintendo ever intended to sue over Dolphin. They were likely merely playing a game of chicken with Valve, and it looks like they won.

@KoopaTheGamer You didn't give proof that those license fees are required, just that companies generally prefer to pay them than to risk a lawsuit on an issue with no legal precedent.

@KoopaTheGamer and your point is?

@Wexter Heck, the DVD decryption key is literally on wikipedia's page for the AACS encryption key controversy and has been for almost two decades. If the answer to my question is simple and that answer is that it is illegal, then the AACS should have a slam dunk lawsuit against wikipedia.

@Wexter You have provided no legal proof I would need a license. To the contrary, the ABA and AACS responses to the AACS encryption key controversy is proof that I might not need a license. There is not a simple answer to my question because the claimed illegality of the actions described has never, to my knowledge, been tested in court.

@Wexter Read up on the AACS encryption key and get back to me.

If the distribution of cryptographic keyes is clearly illegal as you claim, then the Motion Picture Association of America would have had a slam dunk case, yet they never sued anyone who distributed the AACS encryption key.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AACS_encryption_key_controversy

@Wexter Do you need a license? Do you have any case law that proves your claim? Because as far as I currently understand it, it seems that it's illegality untested at best and at worst generally agreed to be dubious by the American Bar Association.

@Wexter That's not case law. The closest thing to case law I can even find on the subject is the AACS encryption key controversy, where the American Bar Associated stated that the illegality of distributing a decryption key is dubious. It seems like the US Justice System has no existing precedent on this issue.

@KoopaTheGamer So you're saying it'd be illegal for me to make and sell my own DVD player? That sounds really anticompetitive and monopolistic. Do you have know of any case law backing up your claim?

@KoopaTheGamer DVD players also need a decryption key to play DVDs, yet it's not illegal for new companies to get into the DVD player industry. Why is emulation different?

@sanderev You can't copyright a number. You can trademark a number, but you can't copyright it.

If something can be used to play counterfeited copies of a copyrighted product and it has zero protections against running them, then it is illegal. If you don't want to go to jail, don't use illegal products like Dolphin, Windows, or the Steam Deck.