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Italian Court Rules PlayStation Modchips Are Legal
cabalamat2 writes "An Italian court has
ruled that
PlayStation modchips are legal under the Italian version of the EUCD, because the modchips are not primarily intended to circumvent copyright protection measures, but to allow people to make backup copies of games (legal in Italy), play
games not authorised by Sony, etc. The judge evidently wasn't impressed by what he called Sony's
'Absurd Restrictions' on usage."
There's also the wider issue. The judge in this case clearly thought Sony were being unreasonable, so he allowed circumvention of a TPM (which the EUCD and DMCA supposedly forbid), because the intention was other than to circumvent; the intention was to allow people to make backups, play games with different region codes, etc.
I expect if a similar case regarding DVDs came before an Italian court, that circumventing the DVD CSS may well be ruled legal. People are starting to wake up to the fact that what the media corporations are trying to do is out of order.
This means that next time I am in Italy I can play games from China?
Italy does not have a "common law" law system, so this doesn't mean "from now on in Italy it is fully legal to produce, sell, install and use modchips". It means these people were not found guilty (and set s a "guideline, too, but this guideline is not enforceable in court)
Restriction of free trade. Sony is free to have the parts made in cheap countries. So why are constumers not allowed to buy in cheap countries?
Right to make a backup. I live in holland were the law allows the samething yet many games activily try to deny this right.
He gets many other points as well. Just read it. I don't know if the text has been humanized but for a legal ruling it is very readable and points out many of the things /. been saying for years. Except this is being said by a judge who has to be listened to.
Oh and as for the question of what this means for other countries. The judge does seem to have taken notice of the australian ruling and a german ruling I never heard off. So the next judge might now take a look at yet another ruling saying that modchips are legal.
Great news.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
In the USA, the corporations control everything. It remains to be seen which is better for the end-user.
It's simple: I demand prosecution for torture.
Rough translation: EULA's are bullshit.
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
There's an absolute gem buried at the bottom of the linked court ruling. It's worth picking your way through the rather poor Italian-to-English translation to find it it.
..."
Specifically, "So all the attempt to bind the purchaser with after-purchase statements are simply ridiculous
It would appear from this and the surrounding paragraphs that the Italian courts would take a less than favourable view of the enforcability of shrink-wrap/click-through agreements such as your average EULA.
In the USA, the corporations control everything. It remains to be seen which is better for the end-user.
:-O
Actaully the Italian PM is also Italy's biggest enterpreneur, so in Italy the government IS a corporation!
My Stack Overflow user
Apparently not, the translation contains errors, but it attempts to be faithful: I may assure that the Italian version sounds pleasingly clear as well (which is not bad for a language where the same word is used both for "advanced" and for "leftover" :-).
And yes, that's exactly the word being used: "ridiculous" (about shrink-wrap notices). Let's hope the meme is spread among other judges.
who would you like to sell your soul to today?
--
ANYONE BUT Bush
Chuckle.
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Well I know Id take Cosa Nostra Pizza over Dominos any day.
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
US corporations are organized crime syndicates. They are really not very different than the mafia. Insurance companies are most like the mafia. You pay protection to them.
How ya like dat?
Well you know what they say, translation is like a mistress. Beautiful, or faithful, never both.
Anyway, this isn't so amazing, we've been region-free and mod-chip friendly in Australia for ages. Hasn't destroyed Sony or Microsoft's gaming sales here, either.
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
I liked the part where Sony told the EU is was a computer so it woulnd't have to pay the import duty on it as a game console, but now they told the court it was a console and that modding it to make it a computer is wrong. Which one is right, Sony?
I thought they were the same thing...
I support the Center for Consumer Freedom
Exactly! We have got to start insisting on the Kantian "categorical imperative," which is nothing more or less than a demand for logical consistency in rule-sets. It is (was?) also the basis for the American Constitutional provision for equality before the law, and the rejection of arbitrary exceptions based on social status.