Sony Australia and its parent companies had claimed that a
Sydney vendor, Eddy Stevens, had infringed Australian trade mark
and copyright laws by selling pirated games and mod-chips that
could be used to run the games.
The Australian Copyright Amendment (Digital Agenda) Act of 2000
makes it an offence to make, sell or promote devices to override
copy-protection technology. Mod-chips are devices that, once
installed in a console, permit the use of imported games and
back-up copies but can also be used to run pirated games.
The federal judge ruled that the vendor had infringed Sony's
trade marks by selling pirated games. However he decided that
chipping the consoles was not illegal, reasoning that modified
chips overrode a device that only prevented copied games from being
played and did not prevent them being copied at the first
place.
Sony appealed the ruling, and the Court of Appeal issued its
verdict on Wednesday. The Court unanimously held that federal judge
was wrong. In its opinion, the fact that Sony's device makes the
copied games unusable was sufficient to bring it under the
protection of the Digital Agenda Act.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission told on-line
publisher Australian IT that the ruling could force up the cost of
computer games.
"Chipping has allowed consumers to modify their PlayStation
console to play imported and backup copies of games", ACCC chairman
Graeme Samuel said. "The Government recently legislated to ease the
restrictions on parallel imports of computer software. Yesterday's
decision may have the unintended consequence of eroding this
advance for consumers."
The use of mod chips is still legal in Australia. It is only the
supply of the devices that is now prohibited.
