The Federal Court has overturned a decision it made last year legalising the use of modification chips in Sony PlayStation game consoles.
A year ago Federal Court Judge Justice Ronald Sackville ruled that the devices, which allow Australian PlayStation and Xbox owners to circumvent copy protection technology to play games that have been copied or imported, were not illegal. Justice Sackville found that the technology that the mod chips disable could not be classed as a copy protection measure as it also prevented legal activity such as playing back-up copies of legally acquired games.
However, yesterday, the Federal Court upheld Sony"s appeal against the decision, and ordered that the company be awarded legal costs. The chips are now illegal.
This comes as a blow to modchip users who use their modchips for legitimate reasons such as playing games from other regions or using Xbox Linux. With games being released in Australia months after America, Australians have no way of legitimately playing games at the same time as everyone else. Sony and Microsoft wins again.