That's all well and good if true, but Patreon is based in the USA, so even if the people behind it aren't (which they presumably are, as the stated "Tropic Haze LLC" is also USA-based), they have to comply with the laws in that jurisdiction.

No it isn't. Where have you got any of those ideas from?

Creating a private copy and using it is absolutely legal. Breaching an "effective" copy protection scheme can be illegal, but "effective" is defined through case law, and can range from "DVD DRM isn't effective" to "rolling ciphers on YouTube are effective" depending on court.

Are you suggesting that VLC is also now illegal across EU, in addition to the US ??

https://wiki.videolan.org/Frequently_Asked_Questions/#Is_lib...