Australian Federal Court Overturns Legal Modchip Sales

An anonymous reader writes "Yesterday, the Australian Federal Court overruled the previous ruling on modchips in Australia. I am pretty sure the overruled case is the mainstay for the 'legal' use of modchips in Australia (predominantly Linux on the Xbox). Haven't seen this hit the media yet, with the exception of the Australian Financial Review referring to it in the Free Trade Agreement context. The ruling can be found here. Although not a lawyer, it appears the original judgement was made on the basis that Sony did not provide a copy protection system. Also noted is that there is limited commercial use for the mod other than circumvention. Wonder what will happen to modchips for the Xbox, given that it can be argued that running Linux could easily be seen as commercial."

Reader silne adds "According to the article in The Australian's IT section, it's not illegal to possess or use a mod chip, just illegal to sell them. Looks like another win for Sony. Hopefully the ACCC is going to appeal this one." Bigthecat supplies a link to coverage at news.com.au, as well.

Comments

Simple summary for all of us...

[jkrise]

There's little point fiddling around with XBoxes and YBoxes to get them running Linux. It's better to focus on commodity boxes and move on.

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And now... for something stupid.

[Anonymous Coward]

All you motherfuckers are gonna pay. You are the ones who are the ball lickers. We're gonna fuck your mothers while you watch and cry like little bitches. Once we get to Australia and find those AFC fucks we're gonna make 'em eat our shit, then shit out our shit, then eat THEIR shit which is made up our shit that we made 'em eat. Then you're all fucking next.

- Love, Jay and Silent Bob.