Australian Man Wins "Mod Chip" Case Against Sony

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Australian Man Wins "Mod Chip" Case Against Sony
Posted by David Reed on 07 Oct 2005 - 01:12

Eddie Stevens, an Australian computer technician who owns a business inserting mod chips into Playstation and Xbox consoles, has won a four year legal battle against Sony after the industry giant sued him 2001.

The mod chips that Mr. Stevens' company placed in Playstation 2 consoles allowed for playing of cheaper imported and copied games, which Sony claimed was in violation of a copyright. Stevens had represented himself and won the first round of the lawsuit in 2001 in front of a single judge of the Federal Court.

Stevens charged between $145 and $195 to insert the mod chips, depending on the model. After an appeal in 2003 it was deemed illegal by the Federal Courts. However, yesterday the High Court unanimously deemed that the mod chips were in no way in violation of copyright laws as long as they were not designed to circumvent systems in the machine that prevented or inhibited copying of games.
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[Calumon]

[glow=purple,5,300]LOL, well, it's correct. A mod chip doesn't make your PS2 into a DVD copier, it only makes it able to read copies.[/glow]

[Mephistopheles]

It maybe doesn't goes against the copyrights, but it still enables the machine to o illegal activities, I mean, the company gets affected if people sell copies instead of buying it to them. I don't believe how that man got out, maybe he was accused wrongly, he could be accused of piracy or of supporting piracy, since even if he's guilty of something, the courts only manage the reason that they gave when they stand the law sue

[Calumon]

[glow=purple,5,300]But he wasn't selling game copies, only making the console able to play them, so in that case he is innocent.[/glow]

[Mephistopheles]

I know, innocent in that trial, because he was accused wrongly, he can be accused for different stuff, he *is* promoting the purchase of copied games.

[Gamemaniac]

Remember it is not a Inocent/Guilty situation ... it is a Not guilty/Guilty case.

And even though they are not creating illegal copies of games they are pasibly promoting piracy. <--- same thing Mephi said ...