If you think I didn't rtfa because I didn't mention that nintendo asked valve not to list dolphin, you are wrong.

If you rtfa, you'll find that the first part of the email nintendo sent valve said that dolphin circumvents encryption, which is illegal under the DMCA. If dolphin were to strip the circumvention code, then nintendo would have no legal reason to ask valve not to list dolphin, and valve could ignore the request.

> valve said that dolphin circumvents encryption, which is illegal under the DMCA

The article explicitly mentions that the DMCA has an exception for interoperability that they believe applies to Dolphin:

> ...a person may develop and employ technological means to circumvent a technological measure, or to circumvent protection afforded by a technological measure, in order to enable the identification and analysis under paragraph (1), or for the purpose of enabling interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, if such means are necessary to achieve such interoperability, to the extent that doing so does not constitute infringement under this title.

Valve is saying they'll only accept Dolphin onto Steam if Dolphin can show Nintendo has authorised it.

Dolphin don't believe Nintendo will authorise the app under any circumstances, key or not, homebrew only or not.

Since Dolphin can't force Valve to put an app on Steam, and neither Valve nor Nintendo will change their positions, the matter is closed.