Petteri Pyyny
26 Jul 2002 14:35
Australian Federal court ruled today that "chipping" PlayStation consoles is not illegal. Sony originally launched legal case against Sydney man, Eddy Stevens, for selling pirated PSX games and providing mod chips for PSX users.
With mod chips, users can play backed up games, pirated games and imported games (PSX and PS2 have region coding). Sony failed to prove to the court that its copy protection measures installed physically on the devices, are there because of the piracy and not because they want to limit the games sold in regions (games cost significantly less in U.S. than in Australia).
Anyway, Stevens was found guilty of violating trademark laws and selling pirated games, but those charges are going to be handled in next month.
Source: ABC Australia