Eddie Stevens, an Australian computer technician who owns a business inserting mod chips into Playstation and Xbox consoles, has won a four year legal battle against Sony after the industry giant sued him 2001.
The mod chips that Mr. Stevens" company placed in Playstation 2 consoles allowed for playing of cheaper imported and copied games, which Sony claimed was in violation of a copyright. Stevens had represented himself and won the first round of the lawsuit in 2001 in front of a single judge of the Federal Court.
Stevens charged between $145 and $195 to insert the mod chips, depending on the model. After an appeal in 2003 it was deemed illegal by the Federal Courts. However, yesterday the High Court unanimously deemed that the mod chips were in no way in violation of copyright laws as long as they were not designed to circumvent systems in the machine that prevented or inhibited copying of games.