Sony's loss 'one for the battlers'
Tracy Ong
October 07, 2005
A SYDNEY man has won a four-year battle against global entertainment giant Sony after the High Court yesterday found backyard modifications to games consoles that allow pirated or overseas games to be played are legal.
Eddie Stevens, a computer technician who owns a business inserting modification chips into PlayStation and Xbox games consoles, said the ruling was a victory for low-income parents who could not afford the games for their children, which retail at up to $100 each.
Sony originally sued Mr Stevens because he was selling Australian-made PlayStations in which he put "mod chips", overcoming regional coding blocks that stopped the machine playing cheaper imported or copied games.
The company claimed he was violating its copyright.
Representing himself, Mr Stevens had won round one before a single judge of the Federal Court in 2001.
Depending on the model, Mr Stevens charged between $145 and $195 to insert the "mod chip" into a games console before the Federal Court deemed it illegal on appeal in 2003.
The High Court found yesterday that Mr Stevens's "mod chips" did not constitute a breach of Australian copyright laws. In a unanimous decision, the High Court accepted the finding of Federal Court judge Ronald Sackville that the "mod chips" would only breach copyright if they were designed to circumvent systems in the machine that prevented or inhibited copying of games.
Mr Stevens said consumers should be able to play copies of "your own legal software and games from overseas".
"We've got to think about unmarried mothers or people not in a position to buy games for their kids," he said.
Mr Stevens, who runs his business from his home in Kensington, in Sydney's east, intends to resume chipping as soon as possible as a result of yesterday's ruling.
His lawyer, Gadens senior associate Nathan Mattock, said the ruling could force Sony and rival games empire Microsoft to change its consoles to prevent chipping.
Manager of legal and business affairs for Sony Computer Entertainment, Leah Sherriff, said Sony was still analysing the decision and was not in a position to comment.
A spokesperson for Microsoft's Xbox also declined to comment.
Microsoft is due to release the successor to its highly popular Xbox console, the 360, in the US in November and in Australia early next year.
Source:
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...5E2702,00.html