News Sony wins Aussie mod- chip sales ban

From the Register:

Australia is now officially under the thumb of the mod-chip banners, after the Court of Appeal, accepted its argument that mod-chips should be made illegal.

Mod chips enable games console players to overcome protection built into their machines to run imported games bought legitimately and to back up games legitimately. But they also facilitate the playing of pirated games too.

For a short time, selling mod chips in Australia was legal - officially, following a court ruling last July. Sony had filed a suit against a Sydney mod-chip trader, Eddy Stevens.

Stevens is no hero: he was found guilty in a separate case of selling pirated software. But he won a famous victory, albeit on curious grounds. The judge ruled that Sony had failed to establish that mod chips constituted a "technological protection measure" that protected the copyright of its games software. If mod chips don't protect copyright then selling them does not violate copyright laws, he reasoned.

Not exactly a cast-iron defence, then, and successful largely because Sony messed up its presentation, reports at the time say. Sony duly won its appeal, now confirmed.

Full story here