IN AN UNUSUAL TURNAROUND for modification communities, an Australian court has ruled that mod-chipping is legal. The High Court ruled specifically that modification of Sony's Playstation consoles in order to play games from outside Australia is not against the law.
A Sydney business man named Eddy Stevens has been involved in a four year battle with Sony. The charges levelled included the selling and installation of Playstation mod-chips and several unauthorised Playstation games. The reason for the court's decision has been that, while these chips allow a user to play copied games or games bought legitimately in other regions, they don't enable owners to copy games.
Mister Steven's lawyers have pointed out that this will allow users to buy games cheaper overseas and play them on return or import games yet to be released or not for release in Australia.
In the UK the selling of mod chips is still banned. Here Microsoft and Sony have full use of the EU Copyright Directive which specifically prohibits circumvention of any copy protection. The BBC's article on this case harks back to an article concerning Microsoft's Xbox 360 and the attempts made to make it unhackable. It is hard to think that will last in the face of organised and legal businesses in Australia trying nothing harder than to chip the 360.
While this might make little difference to the UK it is likely that Australia will see the foundations being laid for companies selling mod-chips commercially. Hopefully this will allow the makers of these chips to mature a little and expand away from the ability to play copied games and more towards dodging region coding on games and movies.
Commercial availability of region-free mod chips could easily change the way the industry works now. A classic example would be the rates charged for games in the UK at the moment, where games costing $30 often come out at £30 on this side of the water. The ability to directly translate costs would mean a better market for competition and encourage direct delivery of content. Australia may be the exception to the rule now, but who knows what the future holds?
