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Italian Court Rules PlayStation Modchips Are Legal

Posted by timothy on from the your-own-stuff dept.

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."

4 of 23 comments (clear)

  1. Reading the judgement makes me feel all warm and f by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Reading the judgement makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The judge involved seems to have understood perfectly what this case is really all about.

    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.

  2. Re:Interesting read ... by alefbet · · Score: 2, Insightful
    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.
    Not necessarily. It isn't that hard to find a distinction between purchasing hardware (an actual physical device, where using it for the purchaser's intentions seems natural) and purchasing a license to use copyrighted materials (where the material is information only and usage of the materials is already subject to a lot of restrictions under copyright law).
    --

    A hack is just an idiom waiting for wider use.
  3. Re:Reading the judgement makes me feel all warm an by Kris_J · · Score: 3, Insightful
    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?
    Ah, the very essence of the globalisation debate. Companies fight for "free trade" so they can abuse workers in countries with no human rights, but if you suggest that perhaps you'd like to take advantage of the retail prices that exist in one of these countries and it's "an illegal parallel import". Welcome to capitalism, who would you like to sell your soul to today?
  4. Is it a console or is it not? by DrewBeavis · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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?