https://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=56661
--- Comment #7 from Dmitry Timoshkov dmitry@baikal.ru --- (In reply to Paul Gofman from comment #6)
I think implementing same mechanics doesn't not necessarily assume copying Windows database, or even supporting the format (while the latter would be ideal of course because I saw some games shipping and installing own shim DB with them). Implementing that would probably mean adding compat hacks manually.
Adding compatibility hacks manually implies using Windows shims database as a reference, which seems to be a copyright violation.