Sony sent packing from Australian courts over mod-chips

Sony has been kicked out of the Australian courts after
trying again to get Mod chips declared illegal in Australia . The High Court ruled that chips that allow imported games to be played do not breach any copyright law, and has allowed them to be sold. This final ruling by the Australian courts means that a four
year battle between a seller of mod chips and Sony comes to an end.

Consoles like the Xbox and Playstation 2 can be modified by soldering an extra chip (Modchip) onto the mainboard regional controls that allow legitimate import games to be played. This also allows has a downside it also allows copied games to be played as well. 

Sony has lost a legal battle in Australia over the modifying of its PlayStation games console. The High Court has ruled that chipping the console so that it can play imported games does not breach copyright law. The ruling ends a four-year legal battle between Sony and a supplier of so-called mod chips, which bypass regional controls on the machine. Consoles such as the Xbox and PlayStation 2 can be modified by chips that are soldered to a console's main circuit board to bypass copyright and regional controls. The chips allow people to play games purchased legitimately in other countries, as well as running backup copies or bootleg discs. In the UK, the selling of mod chips was ruled illegal in 2004.

If companies like Sony and Microsoft didnt but reginal codes on their games and console they could have won this case. Lets face it their wouldnt have have been any execuse to sell mod-chips if their were no reginal codes. I guess if they keep putting reginal controls on their consoles then cases like this will continue happening.

Source: BBC