It looks like those in Australia don’t have to worry when they modify their consoles, hopefully other countries will follow suit.
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.