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

This is Disappointing

[Joel Carr]

I find this very disappointing given that third party tying is well and truely illegal here in Australia, and mod chips allow consumers to regain the rights console makers have been trying to take away from them.

Essentially a mod chip allows a consumer to run whatever they like on the hardware they bought, not only what company X says they can.

The problem is that company X has total control over what can be run on the hardware without mod chips. This means they can sell a product and then say you can only run a select list of programs on the hardware from companies as dictated by them. This is third party tying, and this is illegal in Australia.

In short, mod chips return to Australian consumers the rights they're entitled to under Australian law. This rulling removes them again.