Andre Yoskowitz
11 Nov 2009 16:00
Christopher Paul Gilham, the UK man convicted in 2008 of installing and selling modified Xbox, PS1, PS2 and GameCube consoles has had his appeal thrown out of court this week.
Gilham sold the modded consoles, which allow users to play back pirated games, from 2003 until 2006. His appeal was based on the issue of “whether the playing of a counterfeit DVD involves substantial copying of a copyright work.”
The court ruled against him: "The various drawings that result in the images shown on the television screen or monitor are themselves artistic works protected by copyright. The images shown on the screen are copies, and substantial copies, of those works. If the game is the well-known Tomb Raider, for example, the screen displays Lara Croft, a recognizable character who has been created by the labor and skill of the original artist."
In conclusion, the Court ruling added (via GamePolitics): "It is not necessary in future to show that a substantial copy of the game is made in Random Access Memory (RAM), all that needs to be shown is that some copyright work contained within the videogame is substantially copied e.g. the image of a game character."
The full text is available here: Gilham Decision