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In a court ruling today in Stevens v Kabushiki Kaisha Sony Computer Entertainment [2005] HCA 58 (6 October 2005) allows Australians to buy comupter games overseas and play them on modified TV game consoles.

The High Court ruled today that it was legal to "mod-chip" Sony PlayStation game consoles so as to play games sold outside Australia.

Mod-chips are electronic devices that can be connected to consoles such as the PlayStation, allowing the use of games with non-Australian regional codes.

The consumer watchdog has argued in the Federal Court that the games industry unfairly uses regional coding to set different prices in different parts of the world.

Sydney businessman Eddy Stevens had fought a four-year legal battle against Sony, which claimed mod-chipping breached its copyright and circumvented technology within the PlayStation console to prevent the use of what it called unauthorised games.

In 2001, Mr Stevens sold unauthorised copies of PlayStation games Croc 2, Medi Evil, Motor Races World Tour and Porsche 2000. He also sold mod-chips and installed them on PlayStation consoles.

A lawyer for Mr Stevens said today: "All six judges of the High Court held that widely-used 'mod-chips' were legal, with far-reaching implications for the manufacturers of computer games [Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft] and consumers.

"Mod-chips allow gamers to ignore manufacturers' regional coding systems and purchase cheaper games designed for markets outside Australia."

The High Court found playing a computer program on a PlayStation did not involve reproducing it, so copyright law was not breached.

Court allows gamers to modify consoles
By Kirsty Needham
(From SMH.com.au)

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