K3b, KTorrent, video converters, and most other tools one could name, obviously have enough legitimate uses. youtube-dl is certainly questionable, but SVP (an app that processes DVD's and YouTube videos to make them smoother, same as what any modern TV does out of the box) depends on it, and I think the primary use case falls under the category of adblocking rather than piracy (I don't use an adblocker, but they're a different issue).
But the amount of people who will be able to get non-rights-infringing use out of dolphin-emu is really small, and those who are able to use it legitimately, can just compile it themselves like the other piece of software you need for that.

The main uses of emulators are:

  • Preservation (most hardware becomes rare)
  • Education (how does the OS work, the chips, and so on)
  • Playing the game on high resolution

Especially the last part is important for me. You can upscale games from the last decade to 4K, and add custom texture packs and mods that the community provides.

The usage, providence, and even mention of pirated games lead on #dolphin-emu and every other legitimate platform that deals with emulation, instantly and constantly to a ban.

I also support demm's comment, that basically everything can be used abusively, and the degree to which Dolphin is used for piracy is unknown.

One tool, that is particularly similar to that case, is Wireshark. It is used by security researchers, and in an effect of that, also by attackers. That doesn't mean, we should take it out of our repos.

I suggest, that when you like to pursue that proposal any further, that you provide actual evidence that Dolphin is used mainly for piracy.

The argument that it's used mainly for that, is just out of thin air and merely a hypothesis.
There is absolutely no proof, that this is the case.

All known emulators offer ways to legally use the officially bought content.
And completely besides that: The absolute most content that is played on an emulator is not sold anymore.

The Wii and Gamecube sold out many years, which is what Dolphin emulates.
And the WiiU did, which is the successor to these two consoles.

The last released game for the Wii lays years back, and they don't make any revenue from it anyway.

So there is no revenue lost for Nintendo whatsoever, even if there is pirating happening.
You can make that case for an emulator like Yuzu, which emulates current gen hardware.

    shalokshalom The main uses of emulators are:

    Preservation (most hardware becomes rare)

    It is the job of the developers that created or acquired a game to re-release it.

    Education (how does the OS work, the chips, and so on)

    Again, if that's what you want to do with it, you are probably going to compile the software from source anyway, no package needed.

    Playing the game on high resolution

    Especially the last part is important for me. You can upscale games from the last decade to 4K, and add custom texture packs and mods that the community provides.

    The developers of the most advanced PlayStation 1 and Saturn emulator (also commonly shipped by Linux distro's) refuse to implement this kind of functionality. On principle, apparently; they didn't want the capabilities of old consoles to be misrepresented in YouTube videos. Weird priorities to set, but it shows that enhanced graphics are not the purpose of these emulators, it's just a bonus if they offer it.

    The usage, providence, and even mention of pirated games lead on #dolphin-emu and every other legitimate platform that deals with emulation, instantly and constantly to a ban.

    Official communication channels have to do that in order to stay in the legal clear. Unofficial communication channels will mock you a lot if you ask how to use such an emulator legitimately (I found several of these threads and barely anything helpful when I dug into the subject), because no one actually expects you to do that.

    I also support demm's comment, that basically everything can be used abusively, and the degree to which Dolphin is used for piracy is unknown.

    One tool, that is particularly similar to that case, is Wireshark. It is used by security researchers, and in an effect of that, also by attackers. That doesn't mean, we should take it out of our repos.

    Again, Wireshark has enough legitimate uses. And with most connections being encrypted these days, most illegitimate use is no longer possible.

    I suggest, that when you like to pursue that proposal any further, that you provide actual evidence that Dolphin is used mainly for piracy.

    The argument that it's used mainly for that, is just out of thin air and merely a hypothesis.
    There is absolutely no proof, that this is the case.

    For emulators of older consoles it's rather easy to prove: How much cartridge dumping hardware is made, compared to how widely these emulators are used? I've been interested in a Retrode 2, but these kind of products are rarely in stock because they're more a "see, piracy-free unofficial emulation is technically possible!" proof-of-concept than anything else.

    The GameCube and Wii use discs (so for the Windows version of Dolphin it's hard to proof conclusively even though it's super obvious) but for the Linux version, it's kinda proven by the fact that the software needed to rip a Wii disc is not in any distro's repository, only the emulator. Which brings us to...

    All known emulators offer ways to legally use the officially bought content.

    It is rare for them to offer any built-in functionality or documentation for doing this. Again, the software for ripping a Wii disc on Linux is separate from dolphin-emu itself. It's out of scope, partially because you can also use a jailbroken Wii to rip the disc, but mostly because no user asks for this functionality, because the piracy site already did the job for them.

    And completely besides that: The absolute most content that is played on an emulator is not sold anymore.

    This is easily disprovable: Go to a video game piracy site with a "Top 10 downloads" list; many games on these lists have been re-released officially.

    The Wii and Gamecube sold out many years, which is what Dolphin emulates.
    And the WiiU did, which is the successor to these two consoles.

    The last released game for the Wii lays years back, and they don't make any revenue from it anyway.

    So there is no revenue lost for Nintendo whatsoever, even if there is pirating happening.
    You can make that case for an emulator like Yuzu, which emulates current gen hardware.

    The Wii was current-gen hardware when Dolphin was open-sourced. It was the Yuzu of its day. And it still hurts the re-release efforts. When Super Mario 3D All-Stars came out, most Internet threads about it were spammed with recommendations to use Dolphin instead.

    This discussion is very interesting.
    When I discovered KaOS four months ago, (I'm a new user) and gave a look at the packages on the website, I myself was surprised by the fact that dolphin-emu was in the repositories. The explanation I gave myself was that "It might need to be often recompiled against updates", and this might still be a point. So, I wonder: why was the package originally included? I'm curious about that.

    • demm replied to this.

      panbroggi why was the package originally included?

      Plan has always been to include at least one for any commonly used task, it was requested quite a few times too, needs recompiling on quite a few lib updates, so a good fit at the time.

        demm I see. As far as you know, would a Kcp counterpart be usable? I mean considering the compilation time and the frequency of updates.

        • demm replied to this.

          dolphin-emu es software libre , bajo licencia GNU-GPL v.2 , no hay nada malo en tenerlo en los repositorios, ni viene instalado por defecto en la distribución, se instala si el usuario desea agregar la aplicación.

          Dolphin-emu, esta disponible también en GOOGLE PLAY, si fuera tan "ilegal su uso" del primer lugar que lo eliminarían seria de del repositorio de google. El uso que cada usuario le de al software es responsabilidad del usuario, o porque alguien utilice a libre office writer para falsificar documentos entonces nos cuestionaríamos ¿si debería ser parte del repositorio de las distros?

          KAOS no es la mejor distribución para jugar videojuegos, si bien algunos corren, no es el objetivo de la distribución, los usuarios que busquen jugar video juegos usaran otras distribuciones.

          Y como bien se menciona, habiendo distribuciones que NO incluyen Dolphin-emu, si ese es su objetivo a la hora de elegir una distribución, debería fijarse en esas distribuciones.

          Yo apoyo que dolphin-emu sea y siga siendo parte del repositorio de kaos.

            tatizaffaroni Dolphin-emu, esta disponible también en GOOGLE PLAY, si fuera tan "ilegal su uso" del primer lugar que lo eliminarían seria de del repositorio de google.

            (I don't know Spanish, so I'm going off Google Translate here)

            Google happily lets links to pirated GameCube and Wii games for use in Dolphin stay in their search results (because the movie industry has a strong anti-piracy lobby while the videogame industry does not), so Google Play is not a great comparison point. The iOS App Store does not accept unofficial emulators.
            And I never said the software itself is illegal, I said "These are legal, but have basically no utility other than running pirated games."

            El uso que cada usuario le de al software es responsabilidad del usuario, o porque alguien utilice a libre office writer para falsificar documentos entonces nos cuestionaríamos ¿si debería ser parte del repositorio de las distros?

            I'm pretty sure LibreOffice Writer has even more legitimate uses than any of the software that has already been mentioned.

            Y como bien se menciona, habiendo distribuciones que NO incluyen Dolphin-emu, si ese es su objetivo a la hora de elegir una distribución, debería fijarse en esas distribuciones.

            Slackware and Red Hat Enterprise Linux are not suitable for most users. KaOS comes the closest to being this choice.

            panbroggi I see. As far as you know, would a Kcp counterpart be usable? I mean considering the compilation time and the frequency of updates.

            KCP surely is possible, but as said, there were good and legit reasons why it was added, so I encouraged @jobukkit to start this discussion and see what the pros and cons are and let as many as possible voice there opinion so there can be a good consensus as to why it should stay or go.

            2 years later

            Valve has taken the Steam page for Dolphin down after a DMCA request.

            More on this:
            https://www.pcgamer.com/nintendo-sends-valve-dmca-notice-to-block-steam-release-of-wii-emulator-dolphin/
            https://nintendoeverything.com/dolphin-emulator-steam-release-delayed-indefinitely-following-nintendo-dmca/
            https://dolphin-emu.org/blog/2023/05/27/dolphin-steam-indefinitely-postponed/
            https://forums.dolphin-emu.org/Thread-coming-soon-dolphin-on-steam?page=2

            So it seems until this is better sorted, it will be best to remove dolphin-emu. IF dolphin-emu can work things out and prove legit usage to Steam & Nintendo, it can come back in.

              demm

              The pinned post on Dolphin’s Steam Community Hub had a generic “we do not condone piracy” legal disclaimer… immediately followed by a rule that if you voice opposition to piracy, you would be banned.

              Expecting projects like this to become “better sorted” amounts to waiting for the next batch of obviously insincere legal disclaimers. What is the point of that?

              Anyway, good that you’re finally addressing this now.

              23 days later

              This is ridiculous. Emulators have already proven in court, that they have legitimate use. This is not for discussion, and all the other distros also have various emus available. You have the chance to rip your games from the original disc you got it from, and play it on the PC. Original hardware is often hard to find, expensive and will not be produced anymore.

              Nintendo is notoriously known to be very aggressive and pre-emptive with their strikes, and there is no reason, not legally and not ethically, to support that.

              Just pure fanboyism of people who defend a company, that is only interested in financial gain, at the cost of everyone else:

              All the hard working devs do get not more or less money, if Nintendo makes 2 billion more, 4 million less or whatever else.

              The company is too big to fail, and software preservation imho a human right.

              I payed for that software, so dont tell me how to use it. 🙄

                shalokshalom This is ridiculous. Emulators have already proven in court, that they have legitimate use. This is not for discussion, and all the other distros also have various emus available. You have the chance to rip your games from the original disc you got it from, and play it on the PC. Original hardware is often hard to find, expensive and will not be produced anymore.

                Nintendo is notoriously known to be very aggressive and pre-emptive with their strikes, and there is no reason, not legally and not ethically, to support that.

                Are you referring to the Sony vs. Bleem and Connectix lawsuits? Bleem and Connectix were designed to play legitimate discs straight from your PC/Mac/Dreamcast's disc drive. Dolphin is not. Just because almost every GNU/Linux distro except KaOS and RHEL does it, doesn't make it ethical or legal.
                I don't understand what you are mean by "pre-emptive".

                shalokshalom Just pure fanboyism of people who defend a company, that is only interested in financial gain, at the cost of everyone else:

                All the hard working devs do get not more or less money, if Nintendo makes 2 billion more, 4 million less or whatever else.

                The company is too big to fail

                You can justify stealing physical objects in the exact same way. The nice thing about human rights, like copyright, is that they apply to everyone, even people you think are too rich to need them.

                shalokshalom and software preservation imho a human right.

                I payed for that software, so dont tell me how to use it. 🙄

                You have the discs. You have the original hardware to play them on. This subject has little, if anything, to do with preservation.
                Unless by preservation you mean continued availability, which piracy can actually get in the way of, as it makes proper re-releases (Virtual Console etc.) less viable.

                I see, that you have a particular interest, to invade into others people freedom.

                It is my game. I can do with it whatever I want. People can write software, that runs this, my copy of a game, for which I paid money for. I want to play it in high resolution, I want to play it on the computer, I like to record screen sessions of it, heck I want to play it in multiplayer, which was never possible, or is at least not possible anymore since a long time.

                I have the right, to fix what the developer has missed, same with ROM hacking.
                Thats just perfectly legal and if you think thats unethical, that is fine and you can keep this opinion to yourself.

                Oracle tried to sue Google, because they implemented their own cleanroom version of Java SE. And they lost.
                APIs are not copyrightable. Cleanroom developments are perfectly legal, and proven in court at length.

                This issue is not new. Emulators a viable option to play games. And there is no court decision, that says otherwise;
                Proven by decades of practiced law.

                Steam did avoid a public fight with Nintendo, for which they dont have much too loose. Its not like Nintendo won any legal battle. They just got a few people to shy away with their scare tactics.

                I am using KaOS not anymore since a long time, but coming back and seeing this, just makes me sad.
                A distribution shouldnt be lead by blind and premature obedience. But it is, what it is.

                20 days later
                9 days later