Don't worry about this at all, just don't link to it... ;)

Actually, both EU and US allows for circumvention under certain criterias in various degrees, like learning/maintenance/repair, but regardless (and tldr;), doing it on your own games is legal, sharing can be illegal, and selling IS illegal.

Basically, how it's implemented and what it does to the drm, and what the purpose is is what matters. Sharing the tools is in a very grey area depending on region, severity and success.

They purposely leave it in a grey area to not upset one side over the other, but in general the consumers right is a heck of a lot better in the EU than in the US (their DMCA98 is brutal, you can thank Clinton for that one). It's also much easier for a company to go after individuals there.

Still, slowly it can get better.
https://clinic.cyber.harvard.edu/2018/10/26/a-victory-for-software-preservation-dmca-exemption-granted-for-spn/
https://copyright.byu.edu/librarian-of-congress-issues-updated-dmca-exemptions-rule

So, as an individual, I'd say preservation is a good enough purpose.

Again, in EU their EULA can still be somewhat void if the company's policy is unreasonable.

Also, not long ago, Apple lost to individuals using non-apple products to repair their legally bought products, which as I recall WAS originally in their EULA.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/24/23930762/apple-right-to-repair-white-house-iphone
Right to Repair explained in under 60 seconds


-----------------

OT: No, I don't boycott Steam games, but I try to make an informed choice on which game I can "rum" without the Steam client without much fiddling. Selaco, Rum&Gun and Satisfactory are three of them. I always prefer GOG any way.

Yup, if a game is available on GoG and on Steam, I'll grab it on GoG a) GoG is a European firm and b) DRM free is important to me. Why? because DRM practices have robbed me of products I paid good money for, from USA based/owned companies in particular. And as a European I want to make sure that I maximise the money I spend in Europe.

Used to boycott Steam until GOG started removing games from my library. Went back to Steam and found out I could still re-add certain games (if they were removed due to issues such as errors in payment) back into my library with keys.

Tip - always download the offline installer and store it someplace safe, that way even if GoG has to remove something because of a DMCA or similar, you still have the game downloaded and no one can take that away. I don't do that for every game I own, just the most important ones.

Sadly does not work with certain games if they had DLC or Add-Ons that were free as they can sometimes not be included in the download for some reason. Just noticed I'm missing some DLC for one of my games.

Didn't know that, thanks for the info!

I boycotted steam to be able to focus on another part of my library more....

Wanna know what happened?

I purchased 3 titles i also owned on steam and play those on a regular basis

As it turned out.

I didn't need more games......

but a break,

from an overly active stimuli

It's a huge issue both on GOG and Steam because DLC that is free and not a paid type, there are no keys available for them so those add-ons can be lost forever.