Remember this newsposting last year? Probably not but it mentiones Sony wanting to sue companies like Channel Technologies, creator of the Messiah mod-chip. Mod-chips modify the Sony PlayStation 2 console to let it play back-up discs and it disables the DVD region check. BUZBY used our newssubmit to tell us the following:
Jacob Dean made a terrific defense of the Messiah on the basis that, under the Design's Copyright's and Patent's Act 1988, the upgrade was not 'specifically' designed to circumvent the copy-protection mechanism of the PS2 console, but also dealt with defeating the region control aspect of the same protection, and thus allowed arguably legal functions such as the use of imported games. Also, with respect to the copy-protection mechanism, the use of open software development would be enabled should it be defeated, and the monopolization of the console which currently only allows software licensed by Sony to be run would be stopped, an important factor for consideration. Sony's lawyers faced some difficult problems, but worked fluently with their front man Adrian Speck, Sony's representing barrister and fought back admirably from many tight corners, resulting in the following decision:
Judge Jacob made the following ruling:
The Messiah defeated the Copy-Protection mechanism, and this part of the design SPECIFICALLY was dealing with the use of backup material as a function. The judge acknowledged that indeed it may be useful to have a backup of software as allowed under the CDPA 1988, and there could possibly be cases of 'where necessary', but also the aspect of 'swapping' of backup disks between people would be uncontrollable, and damaging to Sony as nobody would obviously pay £25-45 for a game, therefore 'piracy' becomes the main factor for consideration above all other.
Therefore on this basis alone, Judge Jacob awarded the Summary Judgment to Sony.
Read the full story on www.channeltechnology.com.
Source: Channel Technology
